Cortana's New Life
by Sasha Erin Alexain
Summary: Discontinued. Redux is called "Metamorphosis".
1. Familiar Voices, and New Surprises

Hello all and welcome to the story, I'll give you the facts:

Chief got off Reach, got to halo, destroyed it, escaped, defended the cario, went to earth, killed a prophet, got captured, released, and got to high charity, and then to earth. Fought, rescued Cortana, got to another halo, blew it up, escaped on the Forward unto Dawn. Finished the fight.

Only the story continues after Halo 3's ending, but the Dawn didn't crack in two, so Chief made it back to Earth.

P.S: Johnson and Miranda are alive. Miranda didn't get shot by the Prophet of Truth. And Johnson didn't get his sss killed by the Oracle. Below, I'll explain _both_ situations. They died, but now do not! (Yay).

P.P.S: Dr Halsey and 3 Spartans are alive too. Fred, Kelly, and Linda. Technically Dr. Halsey didn't die anyway, but whatever. I'll explain that one below too.

If you don't want to read about how each scenario is different, then hit **Ctrl+F** and type **"Story Start."**, then enter. And then you will magically tele-port to your destination, and I'll just assume you have used your imagination and your own ideas as to how they're now alive.

As you may have already gathered, I don't like characters being killed off.

* * *

***Miranda***

* * *

"That the best you got?" Johnson said. The Brute Chieftan chuckled, this human would never learn. He grabbed him by his neck and hoisted him into the air, readying his fist for a punch into it's face. "Awwh, Come on. Impress me" Johnson taunted. He was cut short however.

"STOP! You Imbeceille! He want's you to kill him. ...I'd prefer not." The Prophet of Truth told the Brute. Slinking around to the panel before them. The Brute slammed Johnson into the activation panel with a growl and pushed his head on it.

"Whats the matter Big shot? Can't start your own party?" Johnson said, again trying to provoke the Brute. If it killed him, no one could activate that panel, rendering what Truth was trying to do, useless.

"Fire it. I need your Help, That Secret dies with all mankind." The Prophet said, attempting to persuade Johnson to do so. But also was cut short as a huge rumble, followed by a smashing of glass behind them, happened almost instantly. Truth immanently threw himself to one side and there was a outcry from a few brutes that got hit. Truth looked around to see what this source of chaos was.

A Pelican had crashed through the massive window behind them.

Seconds after, Miranda balled out the Pelican, and blasted the nearest Brute in the chest with a shotgun she held. "Johnson, sound off!" She shouted. Turning to fire another round at a Brute that attempted to come near.

"Get out of here!" He shouted back at her.

"Not without you!"

"Your Delaying the Inevitible. One of you will light the Rings! You cannot hope to kill them all." Truths Voice came, as she shot another Brute.

"You're right..." She said. She threw a Pistol to Johnson. And then rolled to one side, blasting another Brute point blank. Johnson leapt into action. He ran up and jumped onto a Brute, tackling him to the ground, the initial surprise of being taken down was enough for Johnson to place the pistol to the Brutes head and pull the Trigger. Johnson shot it in the head again, Just to be safe. Miranda had taken a punch, and moments later, shot the Brute that did it in the face before it could crush her chest. She went down and was brought to her feet by a Brute second-in-command. Johnson had been restrained by two Brutes that had got the drop on him.

"Your forefathers wisely set aside their compassion. Steeled themselves for what had to be done! I see now, why they left you behind." Truth told them.

Johnson was brought over to the Dais.

"You are weak, and gods must be strong." he whispered in Johnson's ear. Placing the humans hand on the activation panel, pushing it down. **(Now why didn't Truth do that in the first place? Would have saved so much time.)** At the other end of the bridge. Chief and the Arbiter had gotten up via the lift, John scanned in on his visor and saw Miranda and Johnson captive, he'd have to get to them quickly. He took a step forwards and was stopped by 2 mutated flood vessels.

"Do not shoot! Listen!" They told the pair, "Let us lead you safely to our foe. Only you can halt what he has set in motion." They advanced with their temporary allies only after they were entirely sure they weren't going to be eaten when their backed were turned. Chief took a few steps forward and took cover behind a pillar, sticking his head out as a few Brutes with jet-packs came into view by landing in front of them, Chief fired off a few bursts from his assault rifle and put down one slightly, the beast charged and stopped as a flood sprite jumped on his back, he started to scream and shout in anger, then in fear as it buried itself in his neck, he screamed and screamed as his nervous system was infected and destroyed, being overtaken and changed by the spore, his scream turned and his fur fell out, his skin turned a green colour and he fell over, John turned way as he knew what would happen next.  
The other was felled by the Arbiter and his sword. They advanced to take down Grunts and Jackal that were attempting to get around them, blood flying as they carved a path through, a Brute fired it's spiker, the rounds bouncing off John's shields, he fired his assault rifle and delivered a square punch to it's face, firing his assault rifle into it again as it was knocked back, the Brute came back on the attack and was stopped short as Johns knife found it's skull.

It took them a good while, but when they made it to the end, they saw the crashed Pelican. They also saw Miranda and Johnson had survived the chaos of the Brutes. and were supporting each other. "Truth's over there, I planted a bullet in the bastards leg when he tried to run." Miranda said to Chief triumphantly, waving the pistol in her hand about. She handed it back to Johnson.

The Arbiter looked to Chiefs friends, then to where Truth was lying. He walked over to the Prophet.

"Can you see, Arbiter?" Truth Began, "The moment of salvation is at hand."

"It will not last."

"Your kind, never believed in the promise of the sacred rings."

"I will have my revenge, on a Prophet from my blade."

"My feet tread the path! I shall become a God!" Truth was saying loudly now. Chief walked over to the panel, and pressed it. That would stop the rings from firing. They now had to go to the ring and destroy it manually. The lights along the bridge had turned off, everything was now into a standby state.

"NOO!" Truth shouted. "I am Truth! Voice of the Covenant!"

The Arbiter grasped his neck in his hand.

"Then you must be silenced." The Arbiter whispered to him. Then he drove the energy sword in his hand, through Truth's back. Truth died almost instantly, and Thel' dropped his corpse to the floor in a heap. Johnson and Miranda turned and walked onto the Pelican, John and Thel' looked around to survey the area once more, and walked towards the bird. They stopped as 5 massive tentacles sprouted from the floor around them, the Graveminds laughter ringing in their ears. The Pelican was taking off and Chief jumped to clasp onto the back with Thel' holding on to him, but alas a tentacle had come around and smacked them from their escape.

"Now we can test you unmatched, headstones pushed aside. Corpses shifted away, and our fate you must abide." The Gravemind chuckled.

Chief looked at the Arbiter, then to the mass of flood before them, all the dead they'd killed were now back up again, with weapons to boot. Thel' activated his sword and John reloaded his clip.

Looks like they were going to have to shoot their way out.

* * *

**And that is how Miranda doesn't die. If anyone was wondering, she dies at the end of the level, "The Covenant". Except, not now.**

* * *

***Johnson***

* * *

They all, Miranda, Johnson, John and Thel', entered a large circular room, several bridges extended towards the centre, where there was another activation panel, and a hologram of the halo ring. They walked down.

"Yank me Chief." Cortana said. Chief reached round to the back of his helmet, and pulled out the holo-disk containing Cortana. He chucked it to Johnson who was now walking to the panel, Johnson didn't look happy.

"Lets do this quickly, and get out." As he walked down the narrow stretch, to the centre of the room, the Oracle floated down to him.

"Ah Hello." it said in a cheery voice, "Wonderful news, the Installation is almost complete."

"Terrific." Johnson said sarcastically.

"Yes. Isn't it?" The Oracle beamed. "I have begun my simulations, no promises, but initial results inidicate this facitity should be ready to fire in just a few more days."

"We don't have a few more days."

"B-b-but a premature firing will destroy the Ark!"

"Deal with it."

Chief looked toward the Oracle, it was talking with Johnson, he turned his head to Miranda, who was looking around the room, he turned back to hear a scream of agony.

"AAARRHHH!" Johnson cried out. The Oracle had just fired an extremely powerful beam of heat at Johnson. He fell to his knees. And then to the floor.

"Unacceptable, unacceptable! Absolutely unacceptable!" The Oracle shouted. Chief ran at the monitor, pulling out his assault rifle, but was cut back by the Oracles beam, John shouted out in pain as he flew back, landing roughly on the floor. "Protocol dictates action! I see now that helping you was wrong!" The Arbiter was about to charge, but the Oracle shot at him before he could do anything, he fell to one knee after a blast of heat hit his chest. He then turned on Miranda, firing at her head, she ducked. Only just avoiding it, It then fired again, hitting her leg. She screamed in pain and went down.

The Chief got up weakly, Only to be Blasted by the beam once more. He also fell to one knee. Looking up into the glowing eye of the floating ball of destruction. "You are a child of my makers, Inheriting all they left behind. You are Forerunner! But this ring, is mine." He blared, now directly floating in chief's face. His eye had turned a friendly shade of blue to a ghastly red.

"Go to hell." Johnson said, standing now, the spartan laser on his shoulder glowed red. Then it discharged at the floating ball, the oracle was consumed in the red haze and knocked well to the side. "Kick his ass.." Johnson said. Sliding the laser across to Chief. He then promptly fell over again and looked as if he was zoning out.

"You will be eradicated!" the Oracle said again, coming down on Chief, firing his beam, Chief rolled to avoid it, succeeding only just, he pulled the trigger on the weapon he held to charge the blast, dodging another beam of heat, his laser reached full as he turned it in the Oracles direction, the red heat stretched across the room, passing over the little menace as it did so. The Oracle swerved out of control, "It, You, you, will, c-cease" It said. The laser was scrambling its circuits. John charged the laser again as a injured robot fired a poorly aimed beam past him, the second blast hit it square on. "Ahh, no, ahh, you, ahh, AHHHHHH!" A loud Explosion could be heard as the Oracle fell to pieces.

"Good Riddance" Miranda said, she was limping towards Chief, he turned to her and saw she was okay for the most part, then turned back to Johnson and ran over to where he was lying. Kneeling down, and moving him so he was facing John. Johnson was awake, he gave a half-smile to the Spartan.

"I'm getting you out." John said to him.

"No, no your not.." Johnson said weakly.

"Yeah. I am." Chief said. Picking him up, hoisting him on his shoulder. He picked up the holo-disk containing Cortana, dropped when the Oracle had attacked Johnson, and walked over to the activation panel, placing the card in so Cortana could do her thing.

Cortana popped up in her holograpgic form. "His vitals are bad Chief. Get him to the Dawn ASAP. And, ...There. Halo has been activated. Lets go, like, this very second."

She dispersed back into her disk. Chief took it out of the Panel and placed it back in his helmet. The whole room had started to shake violently, and pieces of the ceiling and structure were coming down, John didn't wait, he turned and ran.

"We've got to get out! Now!" Miranda shouted.

They all ran towards the door as the room caved in. The Arbiter picked up Miranda seeing as she was limping, she seemed surprised at the action.

And then it's pretty much escaping Halo. Johnson and Miranda would share the Warthog's sideseat. Chief would be driving. And the Arbiter would be on the gun. Then they would reach the Dawn, fly in, Miranda would get Johnson to sickbay, and then the Arbiter steers the Dawn away as the halo ring explodes. And Chief stays in the cargo hold with Cortana. Simple.

***Dr Halsey* (Description, I'll come back to thp and is Later and change it to an Action Flick when I get the time)**

So, After Reach, Dr. Halsey got Linda up and alive again, (After the events of Halo), And what happened was that Halsey took Kelly to Onyx, the Spartan II's training grounds, they met up with Mendez, they battled a fuck ton of sentinels, then the Covenant came and said hello via huge army. Fred and Linda came along with two other Spartans, (Grace and Lee I believe), but those two died, and they retreated into the Dyson Sphere, (AKA Shield world), as Fred detonated 2 nukes to fuck over the Covenant. Save that I've made it that John went there and and rescued them, got them back to Earth.

* * *

**"Story Start."**

**Cortana's New Life.**

**Chapter One: Familiar Voices, and New Surprises.**

* * *

"You all right Chief?" Cortana asked.

"Yeah." He said. He didn't want to say what was on his mind. But seeing as Cortana was In his head, he had a good guess she already knew what was bothering him. They managed to land, and depart accordingly. Johnson and Miranda were sent to the sickbay in the base they had landed at.

"They'll be O.K. Chief. I know it" Cortana said, trying to re-assure him. She knew this could possibly not be the case. Miranda, yes. She'd be fine. But Johnson? He was heavily injured. And was hooked up to machines to help him breathe. It seemed his days were numbered.

"Well Chief, at least the war's over. It's definitely something to be happy about, you did make it happen after all."

Right now, they were currently sitting in Chief's quarters he'd been given. Chief looked around at the walls and sighed, he was tired, and he wanted to sleep. He looked up though as the door hissed open and in walked Lord Hood. John stood up straight-backed with a salute. "Sir." He said automatically.

Years and years of drills and exercises made that one second nature to him.

"At ease Master Chief." Lord Hood said. "It's good to see you have your UNSC spirit after all you've been through." Chief relaxed a little. But still held his posture. Looking at the officer.

"Sir. Permission to speak?" Chief asked.

"Granted." Lord Hood said.

"Sir, how is Johnson doing?"

"He... Isn't doing a lot better. But better nonetheless."

"Affirmative."

"Chief, Cortana. I have some good news for you.", Lord Hood started, "Dr Halsey has done two things. You may be overwhelmed at the impossibility of it. But it's happened, so you may wish to go see her. And Chief, it's good to have you back safe. There's a ceremony later today I'd like you to attend. It's in your honour."

"Affirmative sir."

Chief hadn't been thinking on that. What would happen now? He was to go to where he would be showered with praise for saving humanity. On top of that, what would he do now the war was over..? He could think on this later, right now, his objective was to go to the armoury.

"Oh, Hello John." Dr. Halsey greeted warmly with a small smile, "It's good to see you. Are you in there too Cortana?"

"I certainly am." Cortana replied.

"Good, good." She said, "Well, the reason I've called you here is because I've developed upgrades to the MJOLNIR Mark VI suit. I had planned on doing it sooner, but obviously my situation of being stuck in a Dyson Sphere rendered me unable to create it until now, I had much time to go over what I had planned and it all seems to work, I've tested it extensively and it should be twice as good as your suit now. 8 Mark VI suits were delivered to us two days ago from Songnam, it turns out that during the time I had developed the suits, they'd had hopes that I would ensure the creation of more Spartans for the II and III programs to help in the war, little did they understand you cannot just pick a random person for the job, even with the III's we needed to work a Spartan up from a child. Point being that's 8 suits, 2 of them have been upgraded to Mark VII. And one is for you."

Chief was taking it in. "So, what's different about the suit?" He couldn't help but ask.

"Well for one, an advanced fusion-plasma hybrid power system, making the suit deadlier, making you faster, stronger, and tougher. An Atmospheric Insertion ability, or in other words, to make it so that the gel-layer of your suit can lock up and raise a backup shield to impact on a planet just as an ODST does in their SOEIV's. And on top of that, you are able to have different pieces of equipment installed on the system, such as the active camouflage the Covenant use. Since our alliance with the Elites, which, to be honest, surprised me, I contacted them and they shared the information with us. It works by using phased array optics to project a three-dimensional hologram of background scenery around the wearer of the system. So, to mimic that of a chameleon exactly."

"That's impressive." Cortana remarked.

"Indeed. As well as that there's an armour lock implement. The Covenant have a piece of equipment that covers them in a heavy shield stopping all forms of damage to hurt them. We've succeeded in applying this to the armour, but you'd be completely immobile while using it as it uses up around 87% of the suits functions to boost the shield capacity that high and render it re-usable. I'm currently trying to find a way around it. As well as that there's a drop shield that can be deployed, it's similar to a bubble shield, except that the shield is not impenetrable. It will dissipate, but if offers healing properties while in it, useful if you're hurt and need to recover. There's also a holographic projector, so you can produce a doppelgänger of yourself, and whatever direction you're facing, the hologram will run in. Useful for distracting enemies of finding a sniper. There is also the agility boosting device. Or as most refer to it, "Evade". It allows the user to go in leaps and bounds, for example, you need to avoid a heavy barrage of plasma."

"And... all this is in the suit?"

"Yes." She said with another small smile. "I know when I make things they seem to be for destructive purposes only, but it's in humanity's best interests."

A smile twitched on John's face behind his visor. Her "destructive purposes" are practically what saved humanity.

"So, can I try it on?"

"Well certainly. I wouldn't of done it if nobody was going to use it." She mused, "Follow me."

John was happy about this, his fear of what happened now the war was over, forgotten for now. He walked in Dr. Halsey's wake with no reluctance whatsoever, and they stopped outside a door with heavy metal plating, and guards outside it.

"Ma'am, we're going to need you to provide your identity. Please look into the retina scanner." One asked.

"Certainly." She said, walking over to the box placed on the wall next to them, after a moment of looking into it, it beeped.

"O.K, you're clear to enter. And um, I don't think we need 117 to give an eye-scan, only Spartans wear that armour."

Catherine walked in and John continued to follow after he got salutes from the two at the door. As he walked in he saw in pods lined against the wall were the 8 suits, except the ones that had been upgraded looked slightly different. They were darker in colour, a more sage green than leafy green, on top of that, there was a knife placed onto the upper chest of the armour. It looked like the armour he was wearing except for the new part. But he knew that Halsey meant it when she said it had new abilities.

"I do hope you like it." Catherine smiled.

"It's certainly a nice present. Thankyou Ma'am."

She gave a small laugh and put a hand to his arm. "Ah John, you're still as polite as the day I saw you in that playground. You're most welcome. Although, I do fear that this suit won't be put to use, after all, the war is over."

"There are insurrectionists."

"True... but we're babbling. If you wish to get out of the suit you have on, you can put the other one on. While you do that I can speak to Cortana."

John nodded and thought, "_And I'll even have a nice shower._" He knelt down as Catherine was only standing 5'5" to his 7 feet. He gave her a hug, she wasn't surprised by the action, but he made sure not to squeeze her too tight. And she hugged back. "It's nice to see you in a situation where there's no urgency." She said while he hugged, "You know John, I'd be nice to see your face again."

He let go of her and moved back to face her. He looked to her left slightly, as if to think about it, but then reached up to his helmet and pulled, the suit unsealed itself and the helmet came off with ease. He rested it on his leg and looked into Catherine's eyes. Dr Halsey smiled, there was her John. His short brown hair had gotten ever so longer, looking scruffy from having a helmet on for so long, his blue eyes looking into hers. "Ah, there you are." Catherine laughed, "Your skin is so pale, but you can get some sun now you don't need the suit for ages on end."

John gave a small chuckle. "I have to admit it's actually nice to get some fresh air from outside the helmet. Anyway, if you'll excuse me Ma'am, I will leave you two be for the meantime." He said, getting up to his full 7 feet and placing the helmet back on his head. Catherine nodded and waved him goodbye as he turned and took Cortana out the back of his helmet, inserting the card into a pedastool near Dr. Halsey, he then left.

"O.K. Now here's the proposal", Catherine began again, "Thanks to what technology we salvaged from Reach before it was destroyed. I conducted tests on Onyx as I did the Mark VI suits, I discovered after many tests that It may be possible for an A.I's Core to be tranferred with a procedure into that of living tissue, it would be easy to do so as I worked from how we took an A.I from a human's brain-scan. It'd just be a simple matter of flash-cloning a suitable candidate, and then transferring the A.I over to the body."

Cortana, or her hologram, leaned to the left with her hand on her hip going over all the possibilities, codes and data ran back and forth through her system in a matter of nanoseconds before she had already understood what Halsey was getting at. Cortana asked her without hesitation, "So, you mean... I could be living, in a human body?"

"Precisely."

"I..." Cortana spoke, "I'm not sure what to say." Cortana technically knew it could be possible, she'd already pondered on it by herself multiple times, the fact that Dr. Halsey herself was saying it was more than a mere possibility was indeed interesting. "If I were to say I was interested in the procedure, would that be okay?"

"Perfectly fine." Catherine said, "I should explain that becoming human will effectively terminate your role of being an A.I within the UNSC. But that goes without saying. As well as that Lord Hood has expressed his concerns, you hold vital information on humanity and earth, and we're certain you don't want that tampered with. But being a human means you're vulnerable and should the wrong people take you prisoner, things could be dire. But of course Lord Hood will stand by your decision, otherwise he wouldn't of told you."

Cortana definitly wanted this. But she had her responsibilities. "There's no way I could remain working here?"

"Well that would be up to Lord Hood. But it's most likely a yes considering things.

"This may seem selfish. But I want to go ahead and become a human, and he needn't worry, I'll kep the Info safe in here." Cortana pointed to her head, "It's just that I've always wondered what it would be like, and now I have that chance I don't believe I want to turn it down. So, I say yes."

"It's agreed then, I'll speak to Lord Hood in a second." Hasley said, and walked to her Lab.

"Well... that's interesting." Cortana smiled.

* * *

Now they played the waiting game.

AHA, the first re-done chapter of many. If there are any mistakes, feel free to say, and please do review. ^.^

If you have any questions, go ahead and ask, I'll do my best to answer them.

Updating Soon.


	2. Cortana's New Body

Cortana's New Life.

Chapter 2: Cortana's New Body. Re-done. All spelling errors should be fixed, and things are fleshed out a bit more, should be more descriptive as such. New bits added as well. I can't believe I used to say "Your" instead of "You're".

For all those wanting to follow updates on things a little more than alerts, for example, you want to know why I haven't updated in a while, then go here:

fanfictioninfo . blogspot . com

* * *

It had been two weeks since Cortana's conversation with Dr. Halsey, and truth be told, Cortana was still buzzing around the UNSC base with excitement. She was doing all her processes and tasks quicker than she normally would and not even Chief could stop her overflow of happiness. She didn't exactly realise that she was a little hyper, but no one made any comment on things. All week Catherine had been creating the clone that would be Cortana, and not once did Cortana look in to see it developing, she wanted everything to be a surprise for herself. She was halfway through finishing up on some protocols forwarded to her by Miranda, (Who had come out of the infirmary a week prior), when an announcement sounded over the base's speakers.

"CTN 0452-9. Please report to the Science Labs ASAP. Repeat, CTN 0452-9 to Science Labs."

Cortana stopped her scanning and a moderate smile widened on her hologram. In the blink of an eye her hologram disappeared and she'd already closed the protocols to be read later. Her speed was matched with her determination as she appeared rather suddenly on a podium in the middle of the main Science Lab. Her quick appearance made several scientists jump and shout out in shock. They went back to their work when they realised there was nothing to be worried about however. They gave Cortana a wave here and there and she returned them in kind, and she turned around to see Dr. Halsey before her with a clipboard in hand.

"Hello Cortana." Dr. Halsey greeted.

"Hello." Was Cortana's chosen reply. She sat down as she suspected Catherine was about to talk. And she was.

"As you may or may not know, Lord Hood wasn't exactly happy when he found out you wanted in on a human body. But he supports you nonetheless. If you would follow me, I shall take you to you, and we can begin."

Cortana could barely contain herself. She did wonder what her clone would look like. The A.I didn't waste a second in appearing inside the room Halsey had walked into. She looked around and saw a sheet covering a hospital ward bed, she hazarded a guess to what was under it.

"Well Cortana, here is you." Dr. Halsey smiled, pulling back the sheet to reveal the body she would belong to. Cortana was expecting a new form entirely, however the body she saw looked completely like herself as she projected as an avatar. Everything was to the norm, except that her hair was a deep shade of electric-purple/blue. She looked over the body, completely pleased with what she would be, and in comparison, the body was as slim and petite as she was, not literally of course, the body, legs, and arms were all slender, the chest was, well, rather... busty, the hands and feet were small. She couldn't of asked for a better clone. She would have taken a photo if not for the fact the body had naught but a hospital gown on, and on top of that, machinery was all attached. Dr. Halsey looked over it and sighed. "I used to have a figure like that." She remarked wryly. It was understandable that she would say that, Cortana was based off Dr. Halsey and therefore the body looking as Cortana did now, must of looked like Catherine at the age of 19.

"She's perfect." Cortana smiled.

"Well, we just have to finish setting up the equipment and then we can transfer you, so to speak."

"So how does it work?"

"Well, obviously you need transferring into the body, so we've placed a small custom port in the base of the brain through the back part of the neck, it's more of a net really, it pretty much covers a small part of the back of the brain, we start the transfer process and you transfer over, simple as. Seeing as you were created from a flash-cloned brain going into a brain should be a simple matter of syncing. As you can see your body is hooked up to a respirator and a heart monitor, so you can integrate yourself into the body at your own pace, the equipment should assist you in getting sorted though."

"Well, do you know it works?"

"In theory it does. If it doesn't work you'll simply not transfer. In which case I will extend your lifespan."

"It's still annoying that rampancy has to be a worry for me."

"I know, but thinking ones-self to death just means you're becoming more human than A.I. And you're a smart A.I from a human brain, so really you're a human squashed into an A.I form. Let's just hope this procedure works and rampancy won't be a problem ever again?"

"I am hoping. It's taking up a solid 24% of my processing power."

* * *

John was quite pleased with his new armour suit. It's new capabilities and abilities would come in great use against the tougher, faster and more sneaky of enemies. A small part of him wished there was still a war going on, then at least he could be of some use to humanity. There wasn't much he could do now. Lord Hood had spoken to him of pursuing a civilian life, but he just didn't see it, hell, his only qualification was a license to kill, pretty much. And he certainly didn't see himself striving to work in a supermarket. A 7 foot walking tank asking, "Do you want a bag for that?"

But John felt he belonged to a military career, being raised to do nothing but kill kind of does that, maybe he could help anywhere in the fields of terrorism or criminals? He was thinking on the civvi life, seeing is as a challenge to overcome, he knew nothing of how appliances had worked until he'd looked them up on the internet provided to him on a laptop in his quarters. He'd been confused by the little piece of tech at first, but after taking hours to examine the machine, eventually understood how everything worked, the mouse and the keyboard were so tiny for his hands. He also knew nothing of socialising, that was a key skill in being a civilian, talking to others very often, and it was something he only liked doing with people he knew well, like Cortana or Johnson.

Speaking of Johnson, he was up and about after the attempted murder on him quickly. The doctors had even replaced his lungs, which now was his 5th set of flash-cloned lungs, having burned out his other ones by smoking all those cigars. It brought a smile to Johns face when he saw Johnson walking out of the infirmary looking like the most respected man in history, surprisingly enough, with a big old cigar clamped tight in his teeth, even after the doctors scolded him for lighting it right after the operation.

The Spartan sighed as his thoughts once again turned to his future. He could always travel to Sanghelios, the Elites home-world. He knew there was a great deal of uprising at the Elites break off from the Covenant and the talk of The Great Journey being a lie. It had caused a great deal of grief for the planet which was now seemingly split between those that still believed, those that saw the lie for what it was, and those that just didn't know what to do. He knew that The Arbiter could use his help there seeing as he was there now, possibly trying to help resolve the situation.

His thoughts were interrupted as a knock came at his door.

"Come in." He said in a non-interested voice, going back to his dilemma.

It was Miranda. He stood up in the blink of an eye and snapped a salute.

"Ma'am." He acknowledged. "Nice to see you in good health again."

"Thanks Chief, at ease. Like, forget the salute while we're here too. I don't think it applies now really as the wars ended." She smiled, she was dressed in her standard battle-dress uniform, the one she had also worn to the ceremony weeks ago. It had been to honour all the fallen. He remembered Lord Hoods speech, as he always would.

"For us, the storm has passed, the war is over. But let us never forget those who journeyed into the howling dark, and did not return. For their decisions required courage beyond measure, sacrifice, and unshakable conviction that their fight... our fight, was well fought. As we start to rebuild, this hillside will remain barren, a memorial to heroes fallen. They ennoble all of us, and they shall not be forgotten." Chief has stood in the crowd of hundreds of marines next to the Arbiter. The speech was impactive, that was for sure. The ringing of seven battle rifles firing, shot in the fallen's names.

John was snapped back to reality by Miranda.

"You alright Chief? You seem distracted."

"Yeah I'm good. Just, thinking on things is all."

"Okay, I was just dropping by to tell you Dr. Halsey wants to see you. Cortana passed back and forth several times through the cafeteria and when I left she asked me to tell you to see her as soon as possible as she was already speeding to go see her already."

"She was passing through the cafeteria?" John asked, puzzled.

"Well, more like passing through the wires and TV's. Every few seconds she'd buzz past and everything would flicker and go purple and blue." Miranda smiled, "She's really pleased about something."

"Dr. Halsey is talking about transferring her to a human body."

"No shit?" Miranda questioned, "You're joking?"

"No."

"..."

"It is odd isn't it."

"I take it we've got more smart A.I's then?"

"I'm assuming so. Otherwise I doubt we'd of been told of it. I believe it's a way of saying thank-you for helping save humanity."

Miranda was taken back by that, it was certainly odd that such a thing was occurring, but really it didn't surprise her, after all people could regrow limbs now in the hospitals, cancer had been cured, people could get very good surgery done. Ah Science, it never ceased to amaze her. Much better than religion. **(Inb4 butthurt.)**

"Well, it's interesting to say the least, I look forward to seeing her walking around, literally in the flesh."

"Agreed."

* * *

She looked at her new body again which was now on a gurney. It was flawless, it was perfect, she loved it. It looked just like her holographic form! Oh she was so happy! What made her smile over and over was the guys in the lab that gave her the crazy hair colour the body possessed, and purple eyes too, they opened them for her to see and she didn't contain her giggles.

Catherine attached a cable into the back of the body's neck, linking it over to her laptop, which in turn was connected to several other pieces of equipment and other laptops. Typing in several codes and sequences, she plugged in yet another wire to her laptop, over to the pedestal Cortana was 'standing' on. She looked to her creation.

"Well, the systems are all online, the respirator and heart monitor are on, the body is alive, but it needs a full brain, and you're the one to fill it." Catherine stated. "When you're ready Cortana."

Cortana looked somewhat worried, the emotion splayed over her face clearly visible to Catherine, but she saw wonder, hope, and happiness in those holographic eyes too. She gripped the table she was sitting at rather harshly as Cortana's form dispersed into the pedestal, and immediately she typed in a few lines to her laptop to see what was happening, she figured it would be done in seconds as Cortana was very, very fast.

Catherine saw on screen a few lines down:

_Transfer session: 746620-33_

_File to transfer: CTN 0452-9; AI-Smart_

_Status: Starting..._

It wasn't worrying, but she knew Cortana was just settling or trying to integrate. She tensed with a small smile as she saw:

_Status: Started; File transferring: CTN 0452-9; AI-Smart;_

It was also the fact that Cortana didn't have a percentage meter, that would be somewhat silly, Dr. Halsey rolled her chair around to the body on the gurney, and anxiously looked at the heart monitor which was beeping at a slow pace due to lack of brain function. She was grateful the sound had been lowered or she'd be rather tense. Well, _more_ tense than she was now.

A skinny doctor with long black hair and a very short beard walked over to Halsey and rested a hand on her shoulder. "She transferring."

"I know, thankyou Dave."

"She'll get through, I'm sure of it. We all went over this when you presented it, and we all came to the conclusion that it was possible within a 58% margin. Since we all chipped in and worked on things, the odds have gone way up. She'll get through." He was trying to make her feel better, although he wasn't so sure he was succeeding.

"And if you're wrong?"

Dave looked away for a second, not sure how to answer that one.

* * *

Now, this was interesting to say the least. Cortana saw herself in a web. But, it was an electrical web. She was certain this was her body's brain. These looked like neurons and synapses, definitely the brains network, she just needed to find the "control centre" as it were. But this place was a maze. She'd have to search about. Travelling along the network hearing sounds every now and then, she also felt odd, like, she was weighed down, she was hearing more and more odd noises though, they sounded distorted and scrambled.

Moving up a bit she noticed... a light? Well, she'd read a lot, following lights was never a good thing in the situation she was in. But, there was something about this light. It was pretty, it drew her in, she _wanted_ to go to it. But she was hesitant at the same time. It was scary yet beautiful, and she could hear one clear voice calling out from that light.

"Cortana."

That... that was Catherine. It had to be, again, her name was called and she looked around, everything that was somewhat illuminated was beginning to fade, and that confused her. Why was that happening? The nearer she was to the fading light, the weaker she felt. She didn't like that, quickly moving away from it. That light was calling to her again though, or more appropriately, Dr. Halsey was. And well, Catherine calling to her couldn't of been dangerous, and she was still not liking the look of that fading light that was approaching rapidly from all around. Cortana figured she'd chance it. Turning with determination in her step, resting her eyes on the light, that determination coursed through her, and she ran.

* * *

"How will we know when she's transferred?" One of the scientists next to Halsey, Paul, asked, he looked around and scratched his short brown hair, and then looked to Dave and started to talk, something irrelevant to the situation at hand.

He jumped in shock as the body before him groaned, and feebly stirred about.

"She'll wake up just like that." Catherine simply stated with a huge smile. "Cortana, Cortana, can you hear me?" She asked, leaning over to the form containing the A.I. The form was still stirring, eyes clamped shut, mouth moving with no sound.

"She's coming to." Said a looming Dave. Dave snapped his fingers near her head. And suddenly Cortana's eyes shot open and she shrunk in surprise at the sound. She couldn't fully move just yet, but her eyes were working overtime, darting around to view all surroundings like crazy.

"Eyes are working, ears are working." Catherine noted. "Cortana, Can you really hear what I'm saying?"

Cortana looked as if she were trying to spit something out, her head moved forward, almost pushing, until finally some sound emerged from her lips, "Y-yes, I c-c-can h-hear you." Her eyes widened at the sensation talking brought to her face.

"Vocals working juuust fine." Dave noted with a smile at Cortana's amazement.

"Can you sit up for me?" Catherine asked her.

Cortana wasn't sure if she could. This was all so new, If felt so... Alien. So different. Blinking, she attempted to move her hand, but it wouldn't budge, she glared at it and shouted mentally for it to do so much as flex a finger, and just like that, her index finger jerked upwards and rested again. The muscles in Cortana's face would be described as a grin at that second, and she felt simply amazing at the feelings brought on by all these moving muscles! She had moved her finger, _her_ finger, and _her_ smile! She'd smiled! Gradually she gained enough confidence and ability to move her hand. And sure enough, slowly but surely, she moved her arms back very slowly, resting them on the gurney, and pushed herself up into a sitting position. She looked at Catherine, and again, she tried to push out some words, eventually saying, "T-t-this i-is, am-mazing!"

Cortana felt something run down her cheeks as her eyes went slightly blurry, were... were those tears? She was overwhelmed by all the feelings she was experiencing. Blood pulsed through her veins, She could feel her joints move as she had sat up, the feeling of needing to blink, the sensation of moving her fingers. She could also feel the gurney she was on. It was slightly cold, and hard. Not comfortable, comfortable being a word she could now use! But most of all, the thing that intriuged her most. Was beating, of a heart. _Her_ heart. She really could not be happier, knowing those tears were ones of joy.

Cortana felt that lump of joy in her throat now, but she didn't panick. She swallowed past it.

"C-can, can I t-try t-to walk?" she asked the trio surrounding her breathlessly.

"Well, first off, try wiggling your toes, then your feet." Dave told her. "You've only really got moving your arms around down, and you can only just speak, get used to things before you take that step. As the saying goes, 'You have to learn to crawl before you walk, and you have to learn to walk before you can run.' And I think trying to stand up when you can't move your feet is in there somewhere."

She smiled again at his silliness and turned her attention towards those pesky little digits on her feet. Focusing especially that big one.

"_Wiggle your big toe... __Wiggle your big toe._" She said mentally. She must of looked like she was trying to shoot lasers from her eyes she was staring so intensely, and she managed to squeeze out a small giggle as her toe flexed. "_Now, let's get these other piggies wiggling_." **(Spot the quote, win a puppy!)**

Cortana again stared at her feet, blinking here and there. It took a good half hour of silence and fidgeting from the surrounding scientists before Cortana smiled and let out a breath of success, as her foot moved ever so slightly. She did it again, and again, until her foot her going left to right. She laughed and then looked at Catherine, and laughed again at her laugh, it felt as if she was going to burst into song every time she let out a form of laughter.

"Okay, okay, good." Catherine encouraged, "Why don't you try moving those legs up to your chest, then back down."

Cortana nodded, she could do this.

She closed her eyes and concentrated, she could feel her legs, she wiggled her ankles and it didn't take her long to move her knees towards her, giving a look of wonder as moving her knees made all the muscle in her upper legs contract and pull, it was a brilliant moment for her. Legs slowly getting closer to her, she suppressed a laugh and instead grinned like a fox the second her legs met her chest. But then she huffed and her eyelids fluttered ever so slightly, feeling as if a huge weight had just been put on her shoulders.

"Good, still good, you're doing fine. You just need a little exercise to fully get a hold of your new body, thats all. O.K. for me next, if you can, try to turn, and then place your feet on the floor." Catherine said. She was confident of Cortana's ability to do this step.

The former A.I gave a brisk smile before focusing on the task ahead. Regaining her composure, she shook of the wave of drowsiness, and looked to her legs again, which took tremendous effort for her to shift even their small weight to the left, failing the first time, but with a sense of determination, succeeded in swinging them around quickly to overcome the encumbering ordeal of moving her legs at a slow pace. She grinned again and let her legs move down as she slid down on the side of the gurney very slowly, and no sooner had her feet touched the ground they had left it. She had instantly recoiled, but then laughed.

"Thats... c-cold!" She said with delight, smiling, and challenging the metal flooring by poking it quickly with her toes, taking them back as if the floor were made of fire. She giggled and looked at the floor with joy.

"Thats the first time I've seen a patient who was happy about a cold floor." Paul said wryly. Nodding at her progress. Cortana's toes once again met the floor, and she embraced the chilling feeling that ran though her feet and up her legs. When her feet were firmly on the ground, she pushed herself forward. testing whether or not she could stand. She was gripping onto the gurney so hard that her knuckles were slightly white. Very slowly, she came to a stop, feeling wobbly, this was odd for her. Her hands moved down to her sides, but a little too fast as she fell forwards with a yelp.

"Easy, You didn't think you were gonna do that first time did you?" Paul said as he caught her.

"I'm O.K." She said to them. As she got up to full height with Paul's help. "It's cool, I got this."

Paul held her slightly, looking as if he was unsure whether or not to let go. She stood there straight for a couple of seconds, gathering her thoughts, holding as still as she could. She stepped forwards after what seemed an age, moving one leg in front of the other confidently, placing a foot on the floor each time. She walked to door clumsily, nearly falling with each step, not minding whatsoever, she smiled and laughed as she took her very first steps. She got the impression Catherine was as pleased as parents seeing their children walk for their first time. Well, it was pretty much the same except she wasn't... well, no, she was 5. But still that of an adult in mind and body.

"This is amazing!" She said with pure joy, fumbling about. Cortana jumped as the door suddenly opened, falling in surprise, thinking now Paul was not near, she would hit the floor. Looks like she was about to experience pain.

Only, she was caught by a certain man she respected a great deal.

Chief was holding a woman, her purple hair was obscuring her face, but his chest tightened as he could easily guess who it was. It was Cortana. He was speechless. Not that he normally said a great deal, but he was actually _holding_ Cortana. So many times she had needed his help, and he couldn't comfort her in the form of a hand on her shoulder. The Little A.I, that had been through so many battles and fights with him, was in a human body, she was a human being. It was all very different.

He helped her to stand up straight again, and they just stood there. Looking at each other.

"I see it worked." He managed to say from behind his visor, it seemed so difficult to get just those words out.

"Yeah!" Cortana said with a smile.

Chief helped her walk back over to the gurney, she made no protests about it, and she sat down. John took a step back and stood straight, he looked very deadly in his new suit. "You look nice." Cortana complimented, saying the words she had once spoke back on Cairo Station. John nodded his thanks.

John managed to say, "You do too. I like the hair."

"It's amazing is what it is." Said Dr Hasley as she admired Cortana, "The hair was all these two." Catherine motioned to Paul and Dave.

"I'll vouch for the amazing bit." Cortana agreed, turning to look at Catherine. Another wave of that tingling hit her and crept up her spine again. She was cold, the feeling was not a pleasant one when she thought about it.

"God, it's freezing" She shivered.

"Thats because your wearing nothing but a hospital gown." Paul noted. He hid a small smile.

Catherine, John, and Dave turned to him. frowning.

"What! I didn't do anything!" Paul laughed, "I made an observation."

It occured to Cortana, that she must of been attractive, there was still so much to master about these kinds of things. "I can have a change of clothes right?" Cortana asked Catherine.

"Of course! We don't want you running around the halls in your birthday suit." Catherine smiled, "Well, some of us." She raised an eyebrow at Paul. He raised his hands in defence. Halsey turned away from the four people and left the room in search of garments.

"So..." John started, to end the silence that built up in Catherine's absence, "How do you like your body?"

"It's exhilarating!" Cortana beamed, "I can't wait till I can try my luck on obstacle courses the second I master running!"

"You know, you remind me of Catherine." Chief said to her. And she did, being based from Catherine's DNA. He had meant it as humour, but he felt he must of come across as serious, thankfully Cortana knew him well enough to know it was his attempt at a joke.

Dr Hasley came back in a few minutes later with some clothes. Black boots, jeans, a tee-shirt, panties, and a bra. "Sorry Cortana," she spoke as she walked over to her, "this was all I could find." She said placing them against Cortana to compare size.

"Oh, that's O.K." Cortana said, "I'll try then on now and see if they fit." She smiled and removed the hospital gown. Letting it fall to the floor to reveal her nude form. Everyone in the room gasped. and John was the only one looking away.

"Cortana!" Catherine half laughed, half told off. Covering her with her own lab coat, slapping Paul and Dave on the shoulder each.

"What?" Cortana said. She honestly couldn't see the problem that had just arisen. "You want me to put the coat on?"

"No! I want you cover up!" Hasley responded, utterly disbelieving Cortana didn't seem to care that she just got naked in a room with three men. One of which she suspected would have taken pictures if he could.

"I'm saying this from a scientific point of view," Paul commented, "But Dr. Halsey ma'am, Cortana has very nice breasts, luckily I did not see anything else." John walked over and gave him a cuff upside his head, lightly however as he was wearing his armour, Paul clamped his mouth shut.

"All of you out!" Catherine said, trying to cover Cortana still. "Go on! Shoo!"

All three departed, Paul first as John was watching him.

Dr. Halsey didn't pursue the subject of what just happened. She realised that Cortana had never worn clothes, even as a hologram, hence, why she didn't see that being nude in a room full of people was a problem. Catherine helped her get dressed. She knew Cortana would of had difficulty doing it herself, she had already helped her fit the panties, doing up the bra for her, then handing her the tee-shirt.

"Try to put that on by yourself" Catherine asked. Folding her arms the second Cortana took it.

"O.K." Cortana said unnerved, she knew this should be simple, but she still didn't know how to do it. She had seen people put on tee-shorts before, so she guessed it couldn't be that hard. She was wrong however, seeing as she tried to put it on inside-out. The second time, she tried to fit her head through where the arms should of gone, and was successful the third time round, putting it on with a tiny bit of help from Catherine. She sat on the table to put the jeans on. Seeing as there was only only possible way to put them on, she managed doing them herself, although it took several minutes.

"There we go." Catherine smiled. "The top's a bit small, but the jeans seen to fit, guess that means your a small in the jeans, but I suppose tee-shirts are meant to be a little tight, so if that's the case, you're a small there as well.

"That's good to know." Cortana said, trying to get a feel for the clothing she wore. "What... what happens now?"

"Now? You go and live." Catherine said quite simply, and added, "My Daughter."

Cortana smiled and hugged Catherine.

"I will." Cortana promised, also adding, "Mum."

* * *

Dont forget to Review please!

All reviews are appreciated and go to the retarded kittens 4 U adoption agency! (Please note the agency is pure fiction.)


	3. Venturing

Cortana's New Life.

EDIT: After the Halo wiki was read, I found out that Kelly-087 died from an encounter with Brutes. But I want her for the story, so she doesn't die from the encounter. :D

Chapter 3. Venturing.

* * *

Cortana looked around. Her and Chief had been called by Lord Hood to his Office. Opposite her was Hood. he was sat behind his desk. Looking at them.

"Chief, Cortana, glad you could make it. Cortana, as you know, you are now a Civillian. Therefore. You are a guest here now. Your Welcome back anytime. I'll present you with a pass so that you can access the base when needed, you won't have access to certain areas from now on though. But you are more than welcome to join up as a Scientist. As well as that. I should tell you expenses have been paid, and you have a home waiting for you downtown. I'll present you with the address too."

He Turned to Chief.

"Chief, You have a choice. I can have you sent to Africa, to help out with the Fighting. Or, I can give you 6 months Leave. God knows you deserve it. Though i should warn you, Your something of a Hero to the world, but nobody knows what you look like under the Armour. So I suggest you take it off if you choose the Leave. But don't worry about Africa, They'll manage fine without you, seeing as I'm Dispatching Sierra-087 and Sierra-104 to help.

"You know Sir", Chief started, "If it's all the same to you, I'll take the Leave"

John ddn't like that he wasn't going to help. Which ment he wouldn't be able to fight alongside his Spartans till much later. But he did require a Break. Even though Fighting was all he knew, He wanted some time to Wind down. And spend some down-time with Miranda, Johnson and Cortana, as Friends. Not Teammates.

"I'm glad you chose that" Lord Hood said. "I'll Assume that, Fighting your Entire life, you don't have a place to stay?"

"You know, I don't mind if you want to come and stay with me John, I'd like some company around" Cortana said.

"Thats Generous of you Cortana" Lord Hood told her.

"So John? What do ya say?" Cortana asked the Spartan.

* * *

As they Exited the Base with Lord Hood, All the Soldiers stood to Attention. They walked a good distance to the Gates, and Lord Hood turned to Cortana.

"Heres a Pass. And here are the Key's and Address of your new home. Enjoy it. You've sure as hell earned it." Lord Hood said, handing them to Her, Givning them a Salute. To Which Chief and Cortana both Saluted back. "Theres a Civillian Veichle you can have, We Impounded it here since it was left outside in the no park zone 2 years ago. It runs, so It should get you there" he finished.

"Thankyou Sir" Cortana said to him.

They both walked from the Gate to where the Car was Located. Lord Hood began his walk beack to the Base. As they walked, they felt like talking.

"So what do you reckon the house will be like?" Cortana asked John.

"I don't know, but it had better be big, otherwise I'll complain" He said to her Jokingly.

"I can Imagine you doing that actually"

"It feels good to actually be out of that Armour for the first time in a while" he said. The Armour itself, was in Johns arms. Having that it weighed a ton. It was a heavy as a Crate full of small weights for a Normal Person. So he managed.

"You may be pale and scarred, but you still look pretty good without it." Cortana complimented.

After a few seconds of walking in Silence, Cortana spoke again.

"God I can't believe today happened. I feel like this is some weird Malfunction I'm having, and then I'll restart and re-activate in Mums Lab.

"Yeah, me neither. But your reffering to Catherine?" Chief Asked.

"Yeah, I see her as a Mum. I mean, she created me, In my Opinion, thats just as good as giving birth to me"

"Great, now I can't like Dr Hasley, If shes a Mum, then she'll nag me to stay away from you"

"Ha, I doubt it. Your like a son to her. You know, she told me if she had ever had a Favorite Spartan, It'd be you"

"Did she now?"

"Yep"

They had reached the Car.

"I'll drive" Chief said to Cortana. putting his Armour in the Boot.

* * *

3 weeks after moving in, Cortana was pleased to see John adjusting to a Civillian Life. But she was shocked to see that her own bank account, which was set up by the USNC after she had been turned human, was currently holding $2,042,192. They had paid her for all the years of Service she had provided. Same for Chief. his held a lot more though. At least she was set for life. Her House was quite Big. 3 Bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, kitchen, a dining hall, Frontroom, an Upstairs and Downstairs. The Usual you'd find in a Massive house. One thing she really enjoyed though, was a pool in the back-garden.

She went outside in a Swinsuit purchased a week prior, and sat on patio surrounding the Pool. She dipped her legs in. Admiring how they cut through the water as she moved them about. The sun was hot, the sky was clear, she hadn't a care in the world. It was bliss. Slowly she edged herself into the water, It was mild. She swam around for about an hour. Relaxing, her mind was a blur, and she was oblivious to the world.

John had just come in. He had been out buying some food. Still trying to come to grips with how much money he had. he walked into the Kitchen, placing the Groceries down. He then walked into the Dining room to put something in there, seeing Cortana in the pool through the dining room window. He smiled, he had been living with Cortana for 3 weeks now. He couldn't deny that he had feelings for her. But he couldn't tell her could he? He didn't want her to hate him for saying something like, "I really like you Cortana" or "I love you". He didn't want to destroy there Friendship. So he just went with it. He took out the Trunks he had bought. He then had an Idea.

Cortana was still swimming about, gazing at the sky, minding her own business, and enjoying the feel of the water on her skin. She heard moving in the house, John was back. She smiled and still continued to look at the clear blue above her.. She then heard Footsteps running. She didn't see what jumped over her. But it splashed her completely.

John had just cannon-balled himself into the Pool.

"John!" She Said to the Spartan.

"What?" he said, wiping his face as he rose from out the water.

"You Soaked me!"

"You were already wet" He retorted.

She had no counter to that.

"Oh by the way, while you were out, Miranda phoned, she says Johnsons doing better, and she's coming over to say hi" she told him.

"O.K" Chief said in a tone.

"Whats that matter?" she asked.

"Nothing, I was hoping it would just be you and me again" he said. the words slipped out before he could stop himself.

"Awh, thats sweet" Cortana said, kissing him on the forehead, "Besides, it'll be fun. We can go shopping with her, chat, or we could go bowling! I've always wanted to try that. Or we could..." She continued on. But John just stood there in the pool, watching her talk on about things she wanted to do.

"I'm getting out now" She said to him, grabbing the edge of the pool.

"I only just got in" he said.

"I've been in there for like, a hour"

She got out, but John did too.

"Your not gonna take a dip?" she asked.

"It's no fun by myself" was the reply.

They went upstairs to get changed. John went to his Room, and Cortana to hers. After he got changed, he was about to walk to the door when it was opened by a Naked Cortana.

"Have you seen my Black Jeans?" she asked.

He looked at the ceiling and said, "No, I haven't. You really should consider putting something on before just waltzing in"

"Oh, I don't care, You looked at me without any clothes on when I was a Hologram" she said.

"That was different" Chief said.

Cortana didn't care. But she still couldn't see the problem of being naked, why was it such a big deal anyway? She shrugged her shoulders and went back into her room, she had been walking around the house without anything on the past couple of weeks, each time John told her to put something on.

After she got changed, she went downstairs to watch some TV. It was strange, she could happily sit in front of a box and do nothing. John sat next to her. She liked having him around. She sat closer to him and put an arm around him. Just watching the Screen as John turned it on to some random channel. She leanend in on him. He turned his head to face hers. They stared for a couple of seconds.

Cortana was looking into his eyes, his mind was screaming to do something, but he couldn't do anything. But his Initive threatened to take over. Unfortunatly he couldn't help himself from what happened next. Cortana didn't expect what happened either.

They Kissed.

* * *

Ooh,

*Sings*

Chiefs got the Hots for Cortana, Chiefs got the Hots for Cortana!

*Stops singing*

But Cortana's got the Hots for him too right? Dunno... Will Chief get Cortana? Will Cortana tell chief to get stuffed? Will she Kill him in Anger? OH NOES!

Nah I'm kidding...

I'm aware that this Chapter wasn't that long, and that it was crappy, and for that. I apologize. Hopefully the next chapter is worth the rwad.

Updating soon, Don't forget to Review!


	4. House Guests

Cortana blinked.

John had just, well, kissed her.

Although, to be fair, she did_ kind of_ give the go signal by facing him directly and looking at him for more than 10 seconds. This was John showing his feelings for her, she could see. Cortana wasn't all that surprised; they'd been fighting side by side since Reach went dark. But she had feelings for him too; of that, she had no doubt. She had to admit she liked it. Still.

"You kissed me." Cortana smiled, not being able to help a small smile that came to her lips.

"I did, didn't I?" John replied coolly.

"_Why the hell not? No reason that I shouldn't_." Cortana thought. She moved forward and planted her own kiss on his lips. She held it for a couple of seconds and pulled away to see he was grinning like Cheshire cat. "There. Now we're even."

"Can I make it un-even again?" John said daringly. But it payed off as Cortana kissed him again. More firmly this time. More... lovingly. John liked that.

"Now your way too ahead." He laughed, thinking of it as a sort of game. They continued their battle of kissing until it got to: Cortana: 7, John: 5. Then John moved his arm round to her back, and up her shirt, experimentally. His hands caressed her back, moving over smooth skin and toned muscle. Cortana giggled gently and chastised him.

"John!" She gasped, "Stop messing around."

"Who's messing around?" He laughed, then took on a shy tone. "I am... simply curious."

She stopped for a second. A few thoughts came to her. Had John ever actually _experienced_ a woman?_  
_

Probably not, he was a Spartan hell bent on following orders, mostly.

Cortana was new to all of this, and she was of course still new to the body as well. But it was something they could both experience. Hell, Cortana didn't respect anyone more than John, why shouldn't they make love to each other? That was what she felt this was going to lead to, anyway. She leaned into his lips again, taking in his scent. He had removed her shirt in a matter of seconds. Of course, she still had no bra, she didn't seem to see a need for them, so her chest was in the open. She felt exposed, but it was O.K, because it was John.

They both fell back onto the couch as he went down on her.

* * *

Cortana lazily opened her eyes, viewing her surroundings. Living room, and warmth, TV on... warmth. She was on the couch, In the frontroom, warmth, it was so warm. She was laying down. John had his arms around her and was half-asleep, he held her closely. That'd explain the warmth.

"Good thing we had the curtains closed." She remarked wryly with a small smile, seeing as her and John weren't wearing anything. She looked to a small clock they had that was pinned on the wall. It was coming up for quarter to six.

"_Nearly three hours Intimacy._" She thought. That was a good thing in her mind. "John, wake up: Miranda's got to be coming by soon enough, we wouldn't do well to be here on the sofa in the nude when she comes knocking." she said quietly.

Cortana sat up, getting up slowly, and then grabbing her clothes. John grumbled, opening his eyes to view Cortana getting changed. "You know, I don't think I should go and stop you walking around the house in your pride and joy now." he said to her as she slipped on her panties. Cortana smiled.

"C'mon, you gotta get up, Miranda could be here any second.", she said as John himself sat upright.

"I am up, don't worry." he said, putting his clothes on.

Cortana noticed she had left the TV on. She put on her jeans, and walked over to turn it off, but stopped abruptly as she heard the words, "Master Chief." So she stepped back and watched. John was putting on his shirt, and he noticed Cortana watching the TV intensively, so he watched too.

"...rbiter was found with the last Spartan alive." Was heard as Cortana turned the volume up, "The Master Chief, the hero of Earth is seen coming out of the USNC Frigate, 'Forward unto Dawn', he is followed by one: Miranda Keyes: A Commander of the USNC Navy. The Elite known as The Arbiter follows her. Sergeant Major Avery Johnson who was with them when the fell into the atmosphere, was rushed to a USNC medical ward where he was treated with special equipment for his injuries. As they return, they are all revered as heroes. Stay with us to find out if they will be taking part in the fight in Africa, where..." Cortana had turned to John now, ignoring the screen.

"Good thing nobody saw you with your armour off" she said, assured.

John didn't say anything, he just got dressed. He didn't want the public eye on him, he didn't see himself as a hero, he just helped out fight the Covenant like anybody else. The focus had just all been aimed on him anyway. But at least the paparazzi didn't know what he looked like. Cortana smiled and sat down next to him as he gave a sigh, then a knock came at the door.

"That's Miranda!" She quickly grinned and ran out into the hallway.

John finished putting his socks on, and then heard the door open. "Oh hey, Cortana! Oh my god! You look amazing!"

"Come in, come in." Cortana chided, as John got up and changed the channel. He didn't want Miranda to notice they were posted all over the news.

"Hello Chief." Miranda said with mock formality, John just having entered the hallway.

"Commander" He also said with an equally mocking tone and salute.

Miranda laughed and hugged them both. "Oh, I am glad we're all here! I feel so happy that the war's finally at an End!" She said, squeezing them as best she could. John especially, it would be difficult for him to feel a squeeze hug, she would have thought. While they talked about how great things were, they went into the frontroom and sat down. Miranda luckily sat down on the couch that they_ hadn't_ had sex on.

"It's really nice to see you both somewhere that isn't a war-zone." She said to the two. "And your body is amazing Cortana, you look like Dr Halsey. By the way, did you dye your hair?" So many things she had to say.

Cortana laughed, smiled, and said, "One: Thankyou very much, I'm happy that I can be something entirely different, and 2: Nope. I was 'born' with this colour hair. The guys who created my body decided it would be funny. But I like it."

"That's good." Miranda said, "Oh! and someone else is here too!"

"Can I come in now?" Johnson said as he walked into the frontroom.

"Johnson! You're O.K!" Cortana said, getting up and giving him a hug.

"Good to see your still kicking." John said to the Marine.

"It'll take more than a light bulb to put me down." he said proudly. He took a cigar out of his backpocket. It seemed like he had an Infinite amount of them. He was going to light on up, matches in hand.

"No, no, no, no, no. No smoking in this house, Sergeant" Cortana said seriously, "You can go to smoke out the front, or back, if you like, though."

Johnson seemed annoyed by this. "Since when did you care about smoking?"

"Since I walked past a couple of people smoking down the street, and I decided that It smelled god-awful and made it hard to breathe. I have to look after this body, and second hand smoke is worse for wear." she continued, "If you want to smoke though, feel free to do so outside."

Johnson thought about it for a second.

"Nah, it can wait."

* * *

"No you don't." Miranda shouted as she hit the ball back. They were all in the pool outside; playing beach-ball. Miranda had hit the ball back to Johnson who had hit it in her direction. John was on her team. And Cortana was with Johnson. They had been playing for half an hour now.

"I got it!" Cortana said as she just hit back, falling down under the water with a splash, she arose a second later. wiping the water off her face, and pushing her hair back out of her eyes. Seeing as John was taller and much stronger, he was better. But he hit the ball as gently as he could. The ball went back and it flew past Cortanas hand by a mere centimeter.

"Dammit." Cortana said laughing, "4 - 1 to you guys! Give a girl a chance." She grabbed the ball and chucked it in the air, jumping. She hit it with force and it sped towards John, who knocked it in Johnsons Direction, Johnson hadn't been paying attention, and so it hit him on the forehead.

"Damn!" He said as he was knocked backwards into the water. "Watch it, Chief!"

Cortana and Miranda just laughed. John was getting out.

"Don't wanna play anymore?" Miranda said to him.

"No, I do. I'm just getting something to drink. Anyone else want something?" He replied. Miranda and Johnson said yes.

"Make mine a beer, I haven't had one of those for ages." Johnson smiled.

"What does beer taste like?" Cortana asked. She, despite her 3 weeks of bliss. Had not attempted to try a beer.

"Watery, and bitter. It's an acquired taste" Johnson told her. "Probably to much of a drink for a lady" he finished with a smile.

"Nah, I'll try one."

While they all mellowed out in the pool, John came back minutes later with 2 beers, and 2 glasses of orange juice. He handed a beer to Cortana, and chucked the other across to Johnson, who caught it. They had already been uncapped, so Johnson was glad he caught it properly. He placed the 2 glasses on the side of the pool, got back in, and handed Miranda a glass. He then took his own one.

"Ah, that is much better." Johnson said after a few mouthfuls.

Cortana made a sound that sounded like: "Ugkk." Johnson knew she wouldn't like it, and laughed.

"Told you so..." he said, taking another swig of his own drink.

* * *

The sun was down as it was now near to 10pm. Johnson was drunk. He had raided the fridge, and taken many beers and spirits outside to the pool with him. And so, he was kind of out of it. John and Cortana were just sitting and admiring the stars, while Miranda was getting ready to leave.

"I'm gonna head off. Johnson came in his own car, but he's pissed. Is he crashing here or do you want me to take him off your hands?" she asked the them. She was more than happy to take care of the Sergeant.

"It's fine, he can stay here for the night, we have extra rooms." Cortana replied back.

"Okay then, see-you. Bye Johnson." she said to them, hugging Cortana as they said their goodbyes to her, and then Johnson as she passed through the house, "See-you soon Johnson!" She said, opening the front door, it then shut and she was gone.

"See-a" he groggily replied. He was staring at the floor.

"I'm helping him upstairs." John said, getting up and walking over. "I could carry him."

Cortana laughed, "Like a baby?" She mimed cradling an infant.

"Hah, yeah, I could."

"No, that's fine." Johnson mumbled, "I can do this." he stood up, but he swayed a bit.

"Nope, you need help, yet again." John smiled.

He helped Johnson upstairs, and he fell onto a guest bed and was fast asleep in minutes.

Cortana and John went ahead and shared Cortana's room for the first time.

* * *

**Holy crap, this is finally re-done, and up! Yay, finally.**


	5. Expect the Unexpected

Thanks for all your reviews. I appreicate them. Plus, it makes me feel like writing more!

Anyways, next chapter for you entertainment.

Oh and; You may be surprised.

which is a good thing. Isn't it?

Oh and, I'm always open for suggestions, and questions. Ask away if you think the story could use Improvements. Just leave a question in the review. I'll answer them at the end of each chapter. ^-^

* * *

Cortana awoke to the sound of an Explosion, It was early after Midnight, and John waking her up.

"Cortana! Get up now!" He shouted, he was wearing his Mark VII Armour.

She quickly did so, and chief handed her a Battle Rifle.

"Where did you get this?" She shouted over the noise.

"Not now! Follow me!" he said as Plasma Bolts flew through the Window.

Chief fired some shots from his Own Battle Rifle back at the Attackers, She heard screeches and cries of pain. She followed him as he ran through the bedroom door, and Johnson came up to him, he was sobered up. And dressed in casual clothes, he didn't have his Standard Armour.

"Chief! Brutes outside the front, grunts and jackals are with 'em, there gonna be in here soon!" He said, then he turned and jumped over the stairs banister, and ran down the stairs to the hallway. He took cover behind the wall where the front door was, and fired shots at the Advancing Covenant.

"Chief! What the hell's happening?" Cortana shouted. She had never fired a weapon before. But she technically had. Using turrets remotely when she was an A.I. She went to the window at the left of the bedroom, and fired at the enemy. She was surprisingly Accurate, hitting two Grunts, and injuring a Jackal with a few bursts.

"Don't know! Follow me!" He shouted back as another explosion racked the air. He ran down the stairs to where Johnson was. And covered him as he reloaded. Firing at the Leading Brute, hitting him directly in the head, he fell with a growl. The grunts got scared and tried to flee, failing because of Johnson and his Assault Rifle. The 2 remaining Jackals hid behind their Energy Shields. Firing a their Plasma Pistols Madly.

Chief's clip was out and Cortana had ran to where Chief was, getting into a firing stance. A Plama Bolt flew past her head. Chief didn't want her getting hurt, especially now. He slammed a new clip back in. And fired at the Jackals who were firing Bolts Wildly. His bullets were doing nothing, bouncing off their shields.

"Screw this" Chief muttered behind his Visor. He ran out to where the Jackals were. Some bolts flew past into the house, and one hit his leg, Shield Crackling over him slightly. They realised that he was coming right at them, and tried to flee, putting their shields over their heads as they went. However, they were screwed seeing as Chief ran up, and spun, swinging his Rifle like a Bat, hitting one directly in the head, where it's shield wasn't protecting. It fell to the ground. He curb-stomped the Beast, and then ran at the other, ducking low and side kicking its leg, the small Jackals leg broke under Impact, if fell to the ground as chief aimed his rifle at it's face. It let out a screech of hate at him, and he silenced it with a Burst of his Rifle.

"Come on, we have to get to the Base!" he shouted to Cortana and Johnson. They ran to him. "We stick together, Johnson, you Cover Cortana, Cortana... stay low and stay safe"

They nodded. Johnson smiled, he was back in the game. The war had come home. Back to basics, back to training, Back to the Warzone. They followed Chief into the Car, Johnson and Chief Got into the back and opened the windows, ready to fire.

"Cortana, you drive!" Chief said as a Brute rounded the street corner, his group at his back. Cortana said something about not being able to drive, But Chief hadn't heard all of it, he had fired at that Brute. "Cortana! It doesn't matter! As long as we keep moving!"

She acknoledged it, and got into the Drivers seat, she started up the Ignition, and reversed out the Driveway. Chief was still firing at the Brutes Squad. 2 Grunts fell and and a Jackal Sniper took aim. It fired, hitting the door that Chief was at. Johnson fired a single bullet from his Assault Rifle, which hit the Jackal in the chest. The wound proved too great, and it fell choking on its own purple blood.

They passed several houses, even though Cortana hadn't driven before, she was doing a pretty good Job, she swerved to hit a group of fleeing Grunts. Their blood splattering the Windscreen. Chief took down several Brutes in the time they were driving. It seemed the town had been hit hard by Invading Covenant. Where they were coming from was Directed at a Overly Large Phantom about a mileaway. They could see several bullets and Scorpian Shells flying at it.

"Cortana! Drive at the Phantom! We need to help take it down! he shouted to her. She headed in that Direction.

* * *

Corporal Miller was having some trouble, he was pinned by Jackals, he had one clip left in his Battle Rifle. he was fresh out of Grenades, he had used them on those Brutes earlier, he had no pistol, having lost it somewhere along the way of running from a lone Hunter. He stood up and fired, managing to hit one of the Jackals in the head. That clip now empty, The other was now firing, so he ducked down. He was in deep shit. No Sqaud, about to die. He already accepted it. He knew there wasn't an out option. He looked across at his dead Captain. she was laying down, blood dripping down the womans face, her eyes just... staring... at nothing. Life was taken from her so easily, a lone Plasma Blot had hit her back, and those Brutes had fired their Spikers, one of those spikes had hit her temple. Killing her in an Instant. That was then miller had used his Last Grenade. He killed those Brute Fuckers, but now?, now it was time for him to join his Captain, and his other teammates in death. He wasn't scared anymore. He stood up, accepting what was to come. Just then he heard the whirl of a motor.

"Marine! Get your Ass in!" Johnson shouted at Miller as the Car came near, firing and killing the Jackal that pinned down Miller. Miller got inthe front passenger seat, now he was saved, now he got back his not wanting to die attitude, now he was wasn't going to die, he became frightened of dieing again. He was slapped up the head by Johnson, who was trying to get his attention.

"Marine! Where's you Sqaud?" Johnson said to him.

"KIA Sir" he replied in his Accent, he didn't know whether or not the Man was an Officer, but he said Sir anyway. The Man obviously had some Rank seeing as he had called him, "Marine"

"Whats your name son?" Johnson asked again.

"Millers, Danny Millers. Sir" he replied once more.

"O.K. Danny, can you tell me what happened here?"

"Well Sir, we were called out, Covenant Attack, usuul story. Bastards killed ma Squad"

"Well nows your time for Revenge, see that Phantom?"

Danny Noticed the Massive Phantom that was Starting to loom overhead, indicating that they were getting closer to it.

"Yes Sir i do"

"Good. Were going to help blow it up, you can help too"

"K, Sir" he finished.

As they went, they could see several grunts. One of them detached a Plasma Grenade, and primed it, then chucking it as they went by.

It hit the Bumper.

"Weve been Stuck! Everybody out!" Chief shouted. Nobody questioned it. They just listened. They all leapt from the car, Chief was the only one who managed to pull off a roll so close to the ground. The car went by 3 metres before an Explosion and a Fiery Blue Haze enfulged the Veichle.

Chief had soon gotten up, as had Johnson, and they set about massucuring the grunts. Cortana went over and helped Miller up.

"You O.K." she asked.

"Yea, I'm fine Ma'am. Shouldn't you be Shelterin' somewhere?"

"I used to be USNC Personnel. I'm gonna fight these Bastards"

"C'mon, lets head for the Phantom" Chief said as he came up. "Were not far now, should b-"

Chief didn't finish his sentence, he was hit by a Hunters Cannon Blast. If hit him, Engulfing him, he was panting and growling some from the shock and Impact. His shields crackled widly and then dispersed. The Hunters Cannon was out luckily, it was the same hunter that had been chasing Millers. Chief didn't have time to cover. He took a plasma grenade from one of the dead grunts, and ran at the hunter. It swung at him, he evaded it and grabbed ahold of a spike in its armour. Spinning round and placing his feet firmly on the hunters back, he then primed the grenade and shoved it imbetween the hunters shoulder armour. He then did a backflip that would have put an olympus to shame, and landed about 2 metres away on One knee.

The Hunter attempted to take the grenade off, but it was making a poor attempt. It let out a roar as the Grenade Exploded, bits of hunter and orange blood flew everywhere. It landed in a heap.

"Nice Job Sir" the corporal said to Chief.

* * *

When they all Arrived at the Phantoms could see barracades had been set up to block of any Covenant Support getting out from the ship. Any that came down were peppered with gunfire, and killed instantly. So they stayed in the ship, firing from above, firefights with marines and Covenant were ongoing. Several Tanks and Warthogs were in the Area.

Chief ran up to a Scorpian Tank, it let out a boom as a shell flew at the Phantoms engines. They were protected by heavy shielding. The Shield wasn't faltering yet.

He jumped on top, knocking on the hatch. It opened a few seconds later to reveal a marine with a small black goatee.

"Master Chief!" he said in surprise.

"Can I commander this Veichle Marine?" He asked the Soldier politely.

"Course yer can sir! You'd do a damn better Job than me" came the mans reply, he got out quickly, and chief got in. The man got in the Gunner seat upfront.

Cortana walked over to a Warthog Guass with Miller and Johnson, it had been left unmanned.

"I'm taking the gun" Cortana said confidently.

"Shotgun" Millers said, getting in the sideseat. Johnson got in the Drivers Seat, and then turned towards where the Covenant were fighting off USNC Forces. there was a massive wave of them covering, shouting orders. The Marines were bogged down too.

"Were Oscar Mike!" Johnson shouted, he drove the Warthog towards were the battle was taking place. Cortana open fired on them, as were several other Warthogs. The Scorpians were firing at the Phantom.

"Ope-nin' fire!" Danny shouted, aiming at some Jackals trying to make thier way back to the ship. Cortana noticed millers Accent, he was British. He was a good aim too, hitting several enemies at once.

"Brute Chieftan!" Johnson shouted. And drove away a bit, the gravity hammer it held could send the car flying. Cortana focused her fire at him. As did danny. They rounds hit it, doing in the shield it had around it. The "Invunrability" Shield, as it was known.

It dissapated as he got near, and Cortana finished him with a gauss round. he hit the ground a metre away, blood pooling.

As the fight progressed on, the Shields of the Phantom were down thanks to some precision aim from chief. The Covenant that were trying to fight off the Attackers were failing. There were only a few dozen left now. Brutes barked orders for retreat, Some Covenant ran to the Grav lift that would take them into the Phantom, but they were struck down by Marines. Cortana and millers added to the spray of lead.

The Phantom was quiverng. And failing. It's engines were unshielded, so they were taking heavy damage. A Scorpian round hit the left engine one last time before it Lit up liken a bonfire, made some odd noises and drifting down to a side, and then Exploded. Pieces of the debris landed below, but Injured no one. Several bits of Covenant rained down.

Many Marines cheered, Johnson high fived Miller, and Cortana smiled. Her first fight properly, and she had come out unscathed. Chief got out of the Tank and went over to the Gauss-Hog Cortana and that were in..

"Good job guys" he said, smiling behind his visor. They Smiled and Cheered.

"We got those gits!" Miller said. "Jus' a shame bout my Sqaud..."

"You did good Corporal, you did good" Johnson assured him.

Now all they had to do was find out what happened Next...

* * *

FUCK YEA FOR ACTION!

I was planning on having another chapter of _looovee_ between Cortana and Chief. But I said there would be looming Covenant, and now there is!

Will they get to fight, (obviously), What will hapen to our British Corporal? Will Johnson ever get more Cigars?

Dunno, but keep readin on to find out!

Review as always! Bye now!


	6. Englishman, Scotsman, American

Next Chap-i-tarr!

(Don't ask why i did that)

* * *

Lt Peters walked over to Chief, "That was some good shootin' you did there mate" he said to John. The Scot was quite impressed. Then again, this was the Master Chief, he couldn't _not_ be Impressed.

"Thanks" he responded, "Cortana, are you O.K?" he asked the once A.I.

"I'm fine Chief" she replied, she was happy to see John was looking over her. As long as he didn't do it too often. Lt Peters eyed Cortana with a newfound interest.

"Cortana, _the_ A.I. Cortana?" he said to her.

"Thats right, but I'm no longer an A.I" she told him with a smile.

"I had heard, but I did'n believe it, Aye, it's good to seeya in yer new body mate" he said back to her. Obviously, news of her transfer had been spread throughout the USNC.

"Your the guy in command ain't ya?" Millers said to Peters.

"Thats me" Peters replied.

"O.K. Then. How much Covenant Forces are in this Area?" Chief asked him.

"Not much mate, should be cleared up within the hour, theres probably some stragglers left behind from that Phantom, but I cannae tell yoos exactly, We 'ave to sweep the City aroond, set up a peremiter, and establish a ground force soes we c'n lay doon some extra tanks an Shite, then get me Warthog doon 'ere"

"What..." Johnson began, "...the Hell, did you just say"

"So... you cannae speak english mate?" The Scotsman enquired. Cortana just giggled, she could understand the Scots accent just fine. She could understand all Accents just fine.

"God, this is gonna take all day" Johnson muttered.

"Nah mate, It will Ney, yous just gotta understan' me Accent"

After Johnson was explained the Plan by Chief, rather than the Scotsman which he couldn't understand. They spent the Next day sweeping the City of all Covenant. When the Job was done, they set up a Perimiter, just as Peters had said. Johnson tried to avoid conversation with the Scot. He didn't want to be confused by the mans accent. They called in 6 more Scorpians, and 2 warthogs.

"Chief mate, yoo take the Gauss, along with Johnson and One of my Soldiers, you c'n make yer way to the Rendevous Point where you'll meet up with a ton of Marines, from there, you follow until yoo get to where Intel says there may be a huge Covenant Force. At this time, We can't be shure if it's solid Intel, but we cannae take an chance. I'll take the Gunner, Millers, and Cortana with me, I'm makin' me way to that USNC Base just ootside toown, so yous needn't worry mate, she'll be safe" Peters told him.

Chief didn't want them to split up. But Orders were Orders.

"Yes Sir" he said not too happily.

They got into their Assigned Warthogs. And went off. Chief wanted to know the name of the Soldier that had been assigned to him. He found out it was Greg. His last name was Merlotte. They made there way to the Rendevous Quickly.

* * *

Sorry this Chapters so short. But do not fear. I shall be updating soon.

Thanks for all your reviews thus far. Please continue to review.

Until next time, Bambi has left the building!


	7. Fighting It Out

Just go ahead and Write your name down in this book. Just Ignore that it had "deathnote" written on the front of it.

Just write your name in, and you will be allowed to read on...

Sorry I havn't updated in so long. This story has been getting a lot of alerts, so a lot of people are following it. So I guessed I should update it soon, but I hadn't had time due to college. But I passed! I passed the fuckin course! And now I have 3 months in which to update all my stories! So more reading for you!

And also a big thankyou to all of you who are reviewing. I greatly apprieciate them and they keep me going in this harsh writers world we call FanFiction. Don't forget to review after!

* * *

Chief was Firing at a group of Brutes behind an Upturned Warthog. He emptied his clip into one of their faces. He looked about for Johnson, he was sniping behind a wall. Firing random shots at the Covenant.

It had all gone well till now, they went to the Rendevous, and went with the Force that was going to fight the supposed large covenant force, unfortunatly, they weren't where intel said they were. Instead, they were behind them, waiting for them, and now they had ambushed the USNC Force. Dissaray had set in quick, so covenant forces had the upper hand.

A brute jumped over a wall, and headed towards chief, he fired his spiker at the spartan, but the spikes rebounded off his shield. Dropping ever slightly, his new Mark VII armour was better than his original, he decided he should test out his new toys. He pressed the left button on his helmet, and the Jetpack deployed from armour, he found out that it there was a panel on his arm that controlled it. If not for his training with other veichles, he would be flying blind. He shot up into the air, raining bullets from his battle rifle into covenant forces below, hitting several grunts and jackals, nearly all brutes were behind cover so Chief couldn't get an exact shot at them. Plasma bolts shot past him in all directions. Now that their focus had been prioritised at Chief, Johnson and Merlotte could fire upon the aliens with ease.

Merlotte had been pinned down till now. Brutes with plasma cannons, now that they attempted to take chief down, he was free to aim at them. He had a M41 SSR. The standard issue rocket launcher. He took it from it's crateand loaded two rockets in quick as possible. He mounted it on his houlder and ran to an open piece of ground were he could shoot the turrets from. Taking aim. He pulled the trigger, sending the rockets spiralling in their wake. They hit with dead on precision, killing the two brutes instantly. He quickly ran back into cover, plasma bolts now flying in his direction.

Johnson had also taken advantage of chiefs distraction, whom was now landed and had settled behind the upturned hog again, firing. He hit 4/4 shots, killing 2 brutes with headshots, a jackal, and one bullet injuring a brute with gold armour. Merlotte saw this one, and knew these guys did the commanding. So he withdrew his MAC5 AR and opened fire. A battle rifle would have better suited, but it did the trick. Still being in dissaray from Johnsons shot, it was felled by the bullets peircing it's armour.

They pressed on in their fight.

* * *

Lt Peters was driving hell for leather towards the USNC Occupied base through towns. Cortana was firing pot shots at covenant they passed and mowed down, and Danny was blasting any in the face with his newly aqquired shotgun. Their were explosions about them, banshee bombs. Turning about, Cortana let loose a few rounds in the Banshees direction. One hit, and made it falter slightly. Suddenly, the gauss turret wouldn't fire.

"Shit!" Cortana shouted, "It's jammed!" Miller looked over his shoulder, "I'll help!" was a response. He got out his seat and awkwardly climbed over the chassis to the turret, he handed his Magnum to Cortana and ordered her to fire at the Banshee while he unjammed the turret. She found it difficult to maintain her balance, thus avoiding a decent shot at the Craft making an attempt on their lives. The USNC base was no more than 13 miles away now. She now wasn't happy that her and chief were given a home so far from the Base. The Banshee did a roll to the side, and fired a bomb. It hit 2 metres from them, sending the warthog into swerves.

"Hold on!" Peters shouted to them. Cortana was already aware of this action, and was desperately clinging onto what she could. Miller seemed undusturbed in his work, and nodded while adjusting the turret. "Are yoos there foor a fookin tea break corporal? Huury tha fook up!" Peters screamed at him while trying to stop the warthog overturning as another bomb hit near them. "Aye, fook this!" He shouted and turning the steering wheel left with all his might. The warthog skidded to a halt, and the Banshee went past. He got out and unholstered his Battle rifle, taking aim at the Banshee that was turing to face them.

_You have to admire his bravery, _Cortana thought. Also taking aim at the Banshee. Peters opened fire at the cockpit, hitting here and there. Not having much effect. "Come on ya bas-tad" he mutterted, reloading. As it readied it's plasma cannons, it then promptly exploded. Peters was slighly confused at first, but then realized that the source of it's demise lied within the warthogs gauss turret. A smirking Danny at its command.

"Yoo kill-stealin twat" Peters mused with a half-pissed off, half-smiling expression. Cortana was just happy that was over with. They mounted up, and Cortana re-manned, (or re-womanned?), the Newly repaired turret, and they made their way to the Base once more.

They were now just 6 miles from the base. _Not long now, _Cortana hoped. She was getting tired. This human body was still new to her, and she had never experienced lerthargy, seeing as chief always went to sleep at suitable times, and she always went to sleep the same time as him. She never thought being human would be this difficult. Her muscles ached, her neck hurt, and he legs were like jelly, (wibble wobble jelly, or jello, not jam, which americans call jelly, just so you don't get confused), she craned her neck to a click, which made he neck feel somewhat better. She looked about. Miller was alert, ready, keeping his eyes peeled. And Peters was keeping his eyes on where they were going.

Suddenly and explosion hit the side of the Warthog, and Miller and Peters were sent flying out, one of Cortana's feet was stuck in the footweld of the turret, and so she clung on to the turret as the warthog rebounded and did somersaults, it crashed down into a ditch outside of the recent town they had passed. And an explosion of the Warthog soon followed. A lone grunt with a Fuel-rod cannon triumphantly yelled and scurried off. He had a long scar running down his chest.

"Barstad!" Miller shouted as he left, his shotgun wouldn't of been useful at that range. Peters was in shock. Cortana didn't get off the Warthog in time. And it had just ignited with a disasterous explosion. "Chief's gonna kill me" he muttered to himself. He had promised Chief he would get her safely to the base. He had just failed to fufill that promise. He just sat there. Staring at the flaming heap in the ditch. A hand was felt on his shoulder. "Come on Sir, she's a gonner" Miller whispered with a sad tone.

"Poor Gal" Peters finally spoke. He looked down and saw the Pistol Cortana has used lying there. He picked it up and handed it back to Miller. Who took it. And then walked over to the wreckage, placing it down beside the Destryoed Veichle. He picked up his shotgun that layed a few metres from him, and Peters took out his own pistol; his BR lost in the explosion.

They continued on their mission.

* * *

*Sob* C-Cortana's deeeaaaadd!

Or is she... *Dun Dun Duuuunn*

Answers to readers:

KILLER: No. No I should not. But I thankyou for your review. And I'm glad you like the story thus far.

Zehos: I'll work on that, Thanks for the Info.

Spartan Ninja: It's easy enough. Take out a few letters here and there and BAM! Scottish Accent. Also: OH SHIT A SPARTAN-NIN-

Will Chief kill Peters for his monumental cock-up? Find out next chapter!

Review Please! I love them! Just like Tallahassee loves his Twinkies!


	8. Demise revoked

I would just like to say a massive thankyou to everyone who has reviewed, favortied, or is following this story. Just over checking my E-mails, I found out that I now have over 25 people following this one single story. Yet so little of you review. it takes two seconds and I'd appreicate it if you did. I need to know if I'm making mistakes or the like. So an even more massive thankyou to all who have reviewed and set my facts straight.

*Looks at you*

*Has nothing more to say*

*Turns towards Laptop*

*Thinks about writing another chapter*

Meh...

* * *

The Invisibility Cloaking Device, (I.C.D.), on his suit was helping greatly. So far he had snuck up behind 4 brutes and killed them all before running back to cover to disperse it. Chief reloaded his Battle rifle as several plasma bolts burned the destroyed wraith he was covering behind. One he had recently destroyed with a well place plasma greande in the cooling vents. Johnson had minor wounds even after 60 or so plasma bolts, being battle hardend and mutated by exposure to toxic pathogens did that. He was fighting off a jackal that had wrestled him to the ground. Chief knew he could handle it.

Merlottle had just shot a Brute down with his last clip, he discarded the Assault Rifle in his hands, taking out his pistol, as well as taking a deep breath in. The American aimed down the sights and shot several grunts that were lining up to fire. He was a good aim. He saw a flash of light out the corner of his eye, and an explosion followed suit, he was sent flying by the warthog that had gone boom next to him, hitting a wall and landing on his back.

A Hunter roared in it's langauge, and surged forwards towards it's enemies. It saw a destroyed tank, several others focusing their fire elsewhere, warthogs and... the demon. Aiming it's cannon directly at him it took to charging it's beam. But then, the demon ran at him, with extreme speed, and reached him in seconds, he barely had time to react as a plasma grenade was stuck between it's head and it's shoulders, it could feel the grenade getting hotter and hotter until...

Chief ran back to his cover, hearing a satisfiying boom as the grenade killed the hunter. His speeder worked well. Another new gadget Catherine had installed on the suit. Chief peeked out from his cover, and saw the enemy lines thinning. This would be over soon.

* * *

A lone Jackal wandered around the wreckage in the ditch, a deserter. Sniffing the air, which had a strange tint to it, flames accompanied by human perfume. It examined the upturned warthog, burnt out and destroyed as it was, it had smelled something over here. There was a human pistol laying on the ground next to this wreck. It decided to look at that too.

Sleek, silver, and powerful looking. It looked like it could do some damage. The Jackal didn't notice a slightly singed and burnt hand slowly moving under the warthog, grabbing at ground, pulling the air again, the Jackal realised there was something around here. But it failed to notice the woman pulling herself up out of the ditch, and turned to see that same woman picking up and aiming the pistol at it. There was a flash before the Jackal could react, and it landed on the floor. Dead.

Cortana sighed heavily and held a hand to her forehead, collapsing to one knee. She hurted badly, she had 2nd degree burns across her body, her clothing was burnt and her head throbbed. She was lucky to be alive. And Peters and Miller had gone on. Probably pegging her to be dead. Her hair was intact, somehow unharmed by the fire, a little out of its normal style, frayed and messy now, but she didn't care. She took steps forwards, even though she suspected her ankle was sprained, being that it was caught in the footweld as the warthog had crashed. She knew she had fractured her left arm, it was the one she had landed on, and she felt a sense of joy though. She was not dead, not parted from her beloved John. Who was god-knows-where. On his way to a rendevous in the middle of nowhere. Probably fighting. No. _Definitly_ fighting. Cortana composed herself, and walked onwards to base.

* * *

O.K. Yes, I know this chapter is short. But hey forgive me, it's my Birthday after all! (Not kidding), June 30th. I'm 17! Yeeeeaaahh!

So anyways, I will update it soon. When I get time. I'm already being nagged to get my arse off here and go to the pub, (my argument is I don't drink, I can't anyways, not 18), but my girlfriend can and I can't say no to her. So I bid you farewell until next time.

Answers to readers:

Zedax: I have. And shall do soon! Was this soon enough?

Scotty: Thanks, I know I do have alot of Errors, but I re-read what I knew, and I now realised. The Ark was blown up, so I'll have to redo that bit of my story where Linda, Kelly and Fred are fighting on the Ark. I'll make them fight in Beijing or something. The covenant like chinese food!

Mafiasosx: I for one welcome you to the Halo Archives. Enjoy your stay! I shalll do my best to update! Just stay away from those guys. *Points to some random guys*

daarb123: I shall update yes! Why would I not? I'm trying to get on top of my punctuation errors, but how did I do in this chapter then? My girlfriend is not the best of proofreader, neither am i...

Spartan-Ninja: Thanks, It was a hard course, (for me), but it is done. For that I am glad. Also I will update soon, but heres a notice: "Do nae thraaten the author mate, he has ways of gettin' yoo too!" Says Peters. *I magically make a Super Na'vi appear with a mini-incenderery-rocket-minigun aimed at you* "Hide in the shadows with your epic armour all you like, but this Na'vi has the whole Omaticaya backing him. He also had a Ninja spotter 3000. Whereas all ninjas are undetectable, this spots them in clear daylight. Do not try anything.

THATS ALL FOR NOW! SEE YOU SOON!


	9. All Is Not Lost

Hey guys! No update shall come today.

heh...

*Awkward Silence*

FINE!

So. I havn't updated in, ohhhhh, say... 20 - 30 days? Last Update was my Birthday if I am correct. So it's now what? August? Coming on September? Oh deary me. Nearly 3 months. But I was an idiot and broke my Laptop. Heres what happened in short:

*Open window*

*Laptop resting on the windowledge of the second floor*

*Idiot, designated, "Bambi", knocks it with elbow unknowingly until he hears a crash*

*Silence, followed by a breakdown upon discovery of said Laptop*

And so, I commemerated the laptop to the great laptop heaven in the sky, where all the other laptops go when they break into teeny tiny little bits because some idiot (J.D) left the laptop on the ledge where said laptop should not be.

But I am sorry Laptop.

"Fuck you"

Oh that's real nice...

* * *

"Well, it's over" Johnson breathed, glancing at Chief who was making sure a hunter he had shot was really dead. He nudged it with his boot, finding it uninteresting after so long, and trudged over to his old friend.

"This sector's clear, if that was the party we were told to terminate after linking up here, then seeing as no UNSC Personnel were here. I'd safely say the company is KIA." he told Johnson, looking around for a minute, he turned his head back to him. "I still think a perimiter sweep would help to see if any friendlies or Hostiles are still in the area" A pause. "Then, I want to get back to base, check on Cortana." His Visor hid his concerned look. She had a nack for getting into trouble. First High Charity, and possibly now.

"Roger that"

* * *

"Son-of-a-bitch" Cortana whimpered. The burns were hurting more and more with each passing second. Laces of pain running up the length of her back, legs, and arms. Her headache was worse, no doubt she had some sort of fever. _Catherine should have said these things come with pain_, Cortana thought. Being an A.I meant that she had emotions, but not that of a physical body, now she was H.I, Human Intelligence. But it also meant being able to die. A major drawback in this lifetime. "Get to base. Get to John." She said in two breaths.

She turned her head at a sharp cracking. Somehow here senses were more alert than that of an ordinary human being. She saw a Grunt about 10 or so metres off. A Grunt with a scar running down it's chest. It made squeels and sounds at her, which she translated to, "Enemy! Heretic! Your Death is the will of the gods!" It aimed it's fuel-rod cannon at her.

"That can't be good" she whispered. Rasing her arm-with-pistol-in-hand to the alien. But too late, the Grunt fired a projectile with one swift pull of the trigger. Sending it hurtling to Cortana at high speed. It zoomed past her, missing by an inch, exploding 6 metres off. The Grunt relentlessly fired again, which she dogded, but it was cut close as it exploded near her, the heat intesifying over her skin. It had taken advantage of the nearby-almost-hit and moved closer, it fired again. She had an Idea, quickly rolling, ignoring the pain that racked her spine, she aimed at the glowing rod that was flying at her, and pulled the trigger of her Magnum.

It hit.

It exploded and the wave knocked Cortana back a bit. Regaining her balance, she looked to the Grunt, who had been near enough the rocket to be dazed by the blast wave. She wasted no time in running at it. At the last step she did a back-kick. Having seen it in a movie that she had watched with John. Kicking the Grunt full on in the face, she did the backflip and landed on her feet, just. The Grunt practically flew backwards, facemask lost in the kick. It's fuel-rod laying a metre from it.

The Grunt, needing methane to breathe, started choking on the oxygenic atmosphere. Attempting to look around for it's mask. Cortana walked over, picking something up.

"Looking for this?" She said coyly, waving it's breathing-mask about.

It's eyes bulged and it squeeled, which translated to: "Give that back Heretic!", Cortana raised an eyebrow. Noting the scar that it had.

"Wait a minute... your the little bastard that shot our Warthog" , remembering the green fuel-rod flash that hit the veichle. It must have known english, because it went silent, still choking to death. She smiled, she was not without mercy. Walking over, she placed the pistol to it's head, and put the mask on it's face.

"Breath deep. It's the last one you'll get"

...

BANG!

* * *

Chief, Johnson, and Merlotte had finally got back to base after the rendevous. After scouting the Area, they had found about 30 or so Marines held hostage in a underground tunnel the Covenant had formed. So at least there endeavors weren't in vain. Even though the captured-and-now-set-free platoon had lost some men, they were thankful for being alive. Giving credit to Chief, saying he was a Hero, that it had to have been all him, that he was the greatest weapon any army could posess.

Quite frankly, Chief didn't care for it, sure people saw him in that light, but he just wanted a quiet life. He was happy that when him and Cortana went to their home, nobody recognized who they were. But that was probably because nobody had ever seen his face at the same time as hearing his name. Or seeing him in his armour. But some people did stare from time to time. Seeing a 7 foot man built like a brick-shithouse wasn't something you saw everyday. Chief sighed as another marine congratulated him. Luckily, the helmet supressed the sound of the sigh. All he wanted to know right now was: Where was Cortana?

As if to answer, Lt Peters and Private Miller walked through into the busy room. But no Cortana. Not to mention the solemn expresion on their faces as they saw him. He started to walk in their direction, they took steps toward him as well.

"Where is she?", Chief asked in a low whisper.

"It.. It's nae good mate", Peters said, facing the ground, he couldn't bring himself to look in the spartans eyes, (Or visor, rather)

Chief had already guessed what had happened.

"You promised me she would make it back safe!", Chief almost shouted, anger rising. He clenched his fists.

"I know. I know! And I shoodn't have made that promise", he said quickly, trying not to draw attention. "Nothing I can say will make you feel better but I'm sorry... I just... I'm so sorry" he finished in a whisper.

Chief didn't want to talk to him, his anger dissapeared then, and turned into sadness and guilt, he shouldn't have left her with them, she would have been safer with him. She'd be _alive_. He turned, and walked off through the crowd, not caring who he bumped into.

Miller attempted to say something, but the words were lost and came out as an inaudible gasp. A pang of guilt stung in his chest.

* * *

The door slid open and Chief uncontentidly walked in, unslinging his Battle Rifle and propping it up against the wall. Passing a small polished metal desk, he turned and st on the built-into-the-wall bed, customised to take his armours weight. He sighed and buried his face in his hand. He couldn't believe it. Cortana was gone. Nothing would bring her back, he was so distraut, most problems when somebody had died never bothered him, even captain keyes, one of the best men he ever knew. But Cortana... you couldn't forget about someone you loved. No matter how good he was at burying memories and forgetting them, he couldn't, wouldn't forget her. He may not have been in for PTSD, but he might sink into depression.

He glanced around the room for a second, noticing something on the desk out the corner of his visor. It was a small package. Standard brown wrapping paper on it, nothing special. He reached over and plucked it off the desk, examining it. He saw a message had been written on the front of it, it read:

"Get this to Chief would you? I don't know his address yet, and I might not be able to get back here to pick this up. Give this to Lord Hood, he'll get it to him. I nabbed the bastard that took this, it was a nice picture so I think he should have it - Johnson"

It was obvious Johnson hadn't been able to come back for this, if it was for him, why not open it? He picked at a corner of the gift, and it ripped open, when he took the packaging off, he let it drop to the floor. The paper may not have been special, but what was inside _was_. It was a picture of him and Cortana, obviously taken by a UNSC Marine who had managed to get his hands on a camera, they were walking down a hallway, he was in his armour, and she was in the clothes Dr Hasley had scavenged around for, the white top, the blue denim jeans, and the white trainers. She was holding his hand.

A lump formed in his throat, but he swallowed past it. Placing it back on the desk, he let out another sigh. But moping about wouldn't do him any good. He got up and went to the door, about to press the button which opened it. But it buzzed, someone had beat him to it. The door opened as he glanced up to see his guest.

"Cortana?"

* * *

Come on! You knew that was coming! Don't tell me you didn't think it! Anyway there you are. Please review. It takes 2 seconds. I know I havn't updated in god knows how long. But I'd appreicate them all the same.

Answers to Readers:

Slothdozer: It would have been nice. Instead they decide to cart Chief off to Onyx with no sequel... As for "Cunt" and "Sod off" Cunt is another word for Vagina. And Sod off is a nicer way of saying fuck off. Chief and Cortana have known each other for 20+ years, I'd think Chief would want to get his leg over after knowing her that long.

Flaminscull3: No. Not in the slightest. It's not great at all.

Daarb123: Faith does the proofreading, I write it. But when that chapter was finished, It was around midnight, so she didn't bother XD.

S-776: Thanks for the reviews. I/We appreicate them.

Zedax: What does Star Wars have to do with Halo 3? Hmm... Chief with a Lightsaber! Yep, the Covenant are (more) fucked.

Spartan-Ninja: You may have an Army. But I have Chuck Norris! And the entire of Pandora! Do. Your. Worst. Oh! Thats right! Chuck Norris. Yep, your fucked!

FUCK YO NINJA SPARTANS!

Mathiasosx: Cool story bro.

Read & Review

Being polite never hurts.


	10. Reunions and Surprises

A smile, the biggest one ever to grace her lips, and it was for him.

"Hey John." she said warmly, noting his confusion when he said her name. "I'm not dead, don't blame Peters or Miller, O.K?"

"I won't." he practically whispered, bringing her closer into a hug, but a soft hug. He was in his armour still, it wouldn't do good to crush his beloved to death. He let her go and took off his helmet so he could look into her eyes properly.

"I never want you to leave me again." he spoke softly. She, still smiling hugged him herself. "If you get into trouble one more time I'm tying you to my back, and never letting you go."

She laughed eagerly and said, "I love you too."

"Then I shall bind you all the tighter." he replied with a coy smle.

And then they just stood there in that hug, enjoying each others presence. But they still knew there was work to be done.

"We need to go. Theres a meeting soon." He chided. He had overheard a few marines talking of it.

"5 minutes" she whispered in his ear. She had an Idea.

"Of?"

"Passion...?" she laughed, closing the door, and locking it.

"Ohhh. We can do that."

* * *

"I'm glad you could all be here." Lord Hood said, adressing everyone around the room. Cortana and Chief were present, as were several Lieutenants and Captains, Including Peters, Miller, and Merlotte. Even though he was a PFC, he had been with Chief's group.

"We have a serious issue to attend to, it is urgent, so I'll make this brief," He began, turning, facing a massive screen, he spoke as a video feed from a satalite overlooking earth's defence grid popped up, "This is a recording from our last satalite from array-603. Moments before-" The screen was consumed in a fiery haze and it went to static "-That." He rewinded it to just before the satalite was blown up. "We see this." He pointed to a small white dot in the corner of the screen. "The beginnings of a slip space rupture. Meaning theres more Covenant on they way. We have a new A.I. who has detected at least 10 Capital Crusiers behind it, possibly more."

Cortana fidgited at "New A.I", was the new A.I better than she used to be?

"She detected hundreds of smaller vessels following as well. Now. We have already assembled the fleet, we have our 5 single most best ships just off the ruptures way, _Spirit of Reach, Acending Dawn, Bloody Justice, Mombassa's Flame_, and, the newly repaired and upgraded, _Forward unto Dawn_. Piloted than none other that Captain Miranda Keyes. She is in command of all 5, and she's up there right now awaiting the onslaught."

Chief had wondered where she had gotten to.

"Master Chief." Lord Hood adressed him by his old title. "As of last night, you have been officially draughted back into the UNSC. Your title of Master Chief Petty Officer, reinstated. All privleges allowed. I know you just got back, but I need you to get up there with Captain Keyes, you will be placed under her command. along with some ODST's."

"Sir"

"Cortana." he adressed the once A.I.

"Yes sir?"

"Offically, you are a civillian, and as such, you will be evacuated to Scyilla, one of the many planets the Covenant do not know of. You will be escorted to the evac zone ASAP."

"Sir, permission to speak?" she asked.

"Granted."

"Sir, with all due respect, screw the evac zone. I'd like to sign up to join the USNC in this campaign. I went with Chief on nearly all his missions, I'd like to do the same again."

"What?" Hood and Chief said at the same time. Clearly shocked.

"Cortana, I don't think that's the best idea." Lord Hood said.

"Sir?" Peters asked. Speaking up from where he was at the table. He clearly wanted to say something.

"What is it Lieutenant?" Lord Hood asked of the Officer.

"Cortana performed aboove the status of an ordinary marine today. She's proven helpful, resourceful, and is a damn good fighter. I wooldn't really think she would want tae do this, but I cannae speak for her. She would make an excellent marine though." he said, smiling to Cortana, who returned it.

"Look, if you were any other person right now, I'd turn you around a point you towards the recruiting offices, but you aren't just anyone. You hold alot of information, and if you were ever captured and tortured for that info by the Covenant?" Hood shook his head at the thought.

"All I'm asking for is a chance to prove I can still help in this. I'd be with Chief, and I do know how to fight, I've studied the USNC's weaponry for over 10 years, I know the training because at times, I took over training the Spartans back on Reach!"

"You did?" Lord Hood said, astonished.

"Yes. That was supposed to never find anyone's ears, but ONI is disbanded now. So I think I'm safe." she told him.

Lord Hood thought about it for a moment.

"Sir, your not really thinking of letting this happen are you?" Chief asked. Cortana did _not_ expect _that_.

"John, I- Chief." she corrected herself, "I would of thought you'd be glad I'm near you."

"Your not an A.I anymore Cortana, your not inside my head where your safe from harm." He said lowly. "Your human now, you can bleed, you can die."

"I know that Chief. But I know what I'm doing." She argued.

"Stop!" Lord Hood barked to regain order. "I've made my decision."

They tensed.

* * *

"I'm going to be a Corporal!" Cortana beamed as her and John walked down a corridor. Lord Hood had assigned her to train on Scyilla, the same one as where civillians were evacuated to, but nonetheless, train. Even though she'd have to train, to prove whether or not she could fight. She was still happy, she could be in the USNC!

"I don't like it." Chief said grumpily. He didn't want her to be in a warzone constantly, he had always risked life and limb to protect her, now she was jumping into a battle without a saftey net to catch her. "I really think that was a mistake."

Peters came up behind them dodging a marine who had stopped to admire Chief. "Congrats Lassie!"

"Thanks!" Cortana smiled, she turned to Chief, "I'll be safe on Scyilla, no nasty Covenant will find us there. We'll be safe."

"I'm sure you'll doo fine, and a Corporal too! Means yoo get to command a squad if your lucky, but at least you're nae a pack rat." Peters ranted on, he then said several ups and downs of being in the infantry. Chief just continued to his ship that would take him to the Dawn. He then stopped to see a squad of ODST's at the end of the corridor. All helmets on.

"You're obviously the Master Chief." The lead one enquired. Helmet different to the others, specially made, "Recon" Issue. "We've been placed under your command Spartan."

"Yeah, we'll have lot's of fun." one behind the lead ODST said.

"Shutup Micky" The lead said.

"And just who are you?" Master Chief asked.

"Names Dare. Veronica Dare."

* * *

YAAAYY! We get the ODST's from H3: ODST! But that awaits us next time!

So there you are. Take it and go!

Answers to readers:

ArcAngel: How rude. If I could, I would ban you from reading my stories, (I probably can but I don't know how), When I update, I do it as and when can, don't demand it and swear at me O.K? But I have updated anyways.

Daarb123: But? BUT! Yeah fine. I am aware of that, but I thnk I should just tell you now: I can't do the whole transition thing! Nah, I can, but I just don't choose to, I like the whole, "First were here! Then where there! And now were here!" thing. Thanks anyway. And as for the depth, I thought I had done that. Hmmph, guess i'll have to work harder...

"This is Chief here, Who's making you do more work?"

*I point at Daarb123*

"Right. COME HERE!"

Spartan Ninja: YAY! THEY ARE! And yes, I shall try to not break Laptops, (or leave them on windowsills for that matter), My laptop hates me, it's happy where it is now, but still not happy with me... And as for you Ninja Spartans, you must understand: They may have some Chuck Norris in them, but that doesn't make them Chuck Norris, even if you were to clone him, they would not be as powerful as the Original. Oh! And who's this? Bruce Lee? The only man to ever defeat Chuck Norris, as well as be his trainer? Well well, Chuck Norris, Bruce Lee, Pandora. I'm set. I don't need more planets full of armies, Chuck and Bruce are at least 50 armies themselves. So again I say:

FUCK YO NNJA SPARTAN-FUSED-WITH-CHUCK-NORRIS-DNA SOLDIERS!

Zedax: What is it with people and "You better update soon!" What will everyone do if I die? Come round my house, find my grave and beat the crap out of my deceased corpse? But really, yeah, they would be! And I'd bet Chief + Chuck Norris + Lightsabers + Guns + Division of Zero = FLAWLESS VICTORY! And when the battle is done, Chief will assume the troll face and say: Problem Internet?

Kivey: A new follower to the story? Well it's always appreciated to see new people reading my stories, nice to see my story is picking up. And thanks.

GhostofOnyx: Like Cortana's Body you say? I'd be careful if I were you, watching Chief and Cortana do it could be considered quite perverse. XD I based Chief's new armour off the new Halo: Reach game armour.

*Chief notices what I have to say*

"You spied on me and Cortana? HEY GET BACK HERE!"

UndeadSamurai01: I know that, but I simply said that because I'd like to think that they have a great companionship. And yes, I shall update ASAP.

Thats all for now, have a horrible day*

*Cake. I hope you have a lovely day!

Read & Review

Being Polite never hurts, and it takes seconds.


	11. New faces, Old teammates

O.K next chapter! YAY FOR HALO: ODST! (The game was O.K, but I like it mostly for the characters)

Oh and: Because of Halo: Reach, Just to make this story more bad-ass, (sorry, bighead moment there .), Noble team died for us Halo fans. So I will resurrect 2 of them.

Kat and Noble Six. (They're my Fav, and they're deaths had the biggest Impact on me)

What I will do, (because my Six character was Female. I just... liked my character as a girl.), is make them lovers. Simply because I can XD. But it will be one of those instant romances. And I'll write it as it's own story eventually, (except it'll be progressive in that story). So you won't get a backstory until I turn it into it's own story. (When fanfiction updates to make the Halo: Reach characters available for making stories), so you can use your Imagination as to how they live. Actually, I'll tell you what:

Seeing as I'm making a backstory in another story. If you guess what I plan on doing, (or you get close to it), I'll put you in this story as an Honorary character. When you, (If you), guess close to, or it. I'll write it in and ask what you want your character to look like, and whether or not you want to be an Elite, Grunt, Spartan, Human, whatever. You name it I'll do it. You just have to leave it in a review. :D

Have fun! And: Next chapter for you!

* * *

"Dare. I've heard of you. You were stationed in New Mombassa, weren't you?" Chief enquired.

"Yes, I was." She said proudly, "Me, Buck, Mickey, Dutch, Romeo and Rookie."

"I take it that's them." Cortana asked. She received nods from Dare's squad. "Well, It's nice to meet you, but, if you'll excuse me, I have to go to train on Scyllia." She strode past them with a big smile on her face.

"And I though people didn't like joining up."

Chief heard the female voice and turned around, to see... to see, a Spartan. Her armour a Cyan colour. One of her arms was composed purely of metal and mechanics. She was wearing no helmet. She looked distinctly American, as well as Iraeli. That would explain her accent. As well as that, another woman was next to her. Helmet on.

Chief was speechless. Cortana had stopped in the hallway and had also looked. Shocked. The ODST's shared in the confusion. Just then, Lord Hood came into view,

"Ah, I see you've met Kat and Six," he said. Chief slowly nodded his head. "They were-"

"-on Reach." Cortana finished, speaking softly. Still somewhat stunned.

"Yes. I believe you may remember this Spartan." He said, signalling to Six.

"Yes, I-I do." Cortana uttered. "It's nice to see you again Six. I never thought you made it off Reach. You stayed to destroy the Covenant Capitol Ship.

"Kat rescued me," Six spoke up, "And I heard you were a human now."

Cortana nodded. And walked forwards, the ODST's and Chief moved out her way as she walked up to Six. And they were surprised to see Cortana envelop her into a hug.

"Thank-you," She whispered in Six's ear. "If not for you, I wouldn't be here with Chief right now. Thank-you so much."

"Don't go all waterworks on me here," she half-giggled. "And it's no problem, It was my Job to ensure your deliverance to the Autumn."

"You saved Cortana?" Chief asked.

"Yeah but, I had help from..." She stopped, looking down. Kat came up to her and gave her a hug.

"Hey, I miss 'em too," she sighed, "But _you_ can't keep going waterworks on me when you keep bringing the team up."

Six solemnly nodded. "Sorry..." she sniffled, "But yeah, I saved her. Dr Halsey asked me to, and Captain Keyes confirmed the order. So I fought through hundreds of Covenant, losing Carter, and Emile. And Dr Halsey says Jun fended off Covenant and died getting Dr Halsey into some mines with about 4 or 5 other Spartans. And then apparently they were cornered by Covenant, and only Fred and Kelly survived."

"I see." Chief stated. "Then: Thank-you. For everything. For helping Cortana."

"Your welcome." she smiled behind her visor.

* * *

"Can you believe that? More Spartans! And Spartans from Reach!" Cortana yelped with joy.

"I know." Chief smiled. It was so long ago he'd properly been acquainted with any of his kind. Now Lord Hood said that the 2 Spartans would join him on his missions. He felt like he was working Blue team again. "I just hope they follow orders properly." he smiled, insinuating something toward Cortana.

"What? I follow orders!" She said with a smile, putting on a clean top, hiding her breasts. Her and Chief had been alone in their own quarters for about 34 minutes now. And well... they had spent some quality time together before Cortana had to leave.

"You didn't follow orders just now." Chief joked.

"Uh excuse me, If I let a man dominate me during sex, I'll never be happy," she giggled. "Besides: You loved it."

"I did." John said clearly. He was already dressed, and was laying on the bed watching Cortana get changed. Something they liked doing. She laughed and pulled on a pair of panties, jumping onto the bed and planting a kiss on his lips passionately.

"I'm going to miss you." She whispered.

"And I you," he replied, "So much for, "Never going to let you go again"."

Cortana sighed. "I know John, but at least I'll be safe."

"And for that, I'm glad." he smiled. Cortana put on some jeans as a knock was heard at the door. She put them on quicker and stood up, as did John.

"Enter." She said to the door.

The door opened to reveal Six. Without her helmet on. This was the first time she had seen Six's face. She was Japanese. But she always spoke with a British accent. That told Cortana that she must have been born in Japan and raised in Britain from a young age, then taken by the USNC for Spartan training. She had angular cheekbones and slanted eyes, part of being Japanese, and small curved lips, accompanied with a small nose. She had the standard 2cm haircut the USNC gave to it's soldiers. But in all aspects:

She was beautiful.

"Sir, just wondering when we move out." she asked John.

"As soon as Lord Hood gives the overall order." she replied to his fellow Spartan.

She nodded and turned to leave. But John stopped her by saying:

"And Six?"

"Sir?"

"It's good to be working alongside you and Kat. It's nice that I have the honour of fighting with Spartans from Reach again."

She chuckled. "Nice to know sir."

She departed with a smile to both of them.

* * *

**A/N: **Not a long chapter I know, and I'll make up for it with the next one. :D

Well, I hope you like the inclusion of 2 of Noble teams best. And don't forget what I said, If you guess close to, or exactly what the story behind Noble Six's and Kats non-deaths is, I'll put you in the Story! If you think it, but don't think it could be the possible answer, It doesn't matter! Post it because you could be right! You never know!

EDIT: Thanks to Spartan-Ninja, corrections were made to Fred and Kelly's survival.

Review please, I feed off them.

* * *

Answers to Readers:

Tom Sloan: I write this fic dude, clearly says it. But yeah, I update regularly... well, less than regularly... Sometimes.

ArcAngel 88: Yep. Well... O.K. But I do not plan on killing off any characters whatsoever. I'm one of those people that loves happy endings and hates characters being killed off. (God, I am a sappy twat-hammer...)

UndeadSamurai01: I answer any and all reviews! (Wewt!) And yes I believe she does. I'll give Cortana this Knowledge, she prolly already knows it though. I think she'll use it just to torment Chief, only... A LOT!

Spartan-Ninja: Dude. It's Cortana, she's bound to get into some trouble and cuase some mischief. Wouldn't be Cortana otherwise! XD

As for your Armies. It would seem we are both potent in the field of Soldiers. In a battle, Many would die on both sides. I having the original Chuck Norris and Bruce Lee, as well as everyone from Pandora, Final Fantasy, Gears of War, Halo 1, 2, 3, ODST and Reach, Far Cry, King Kong, Wet, Tomb Raider, Duke Nukem, Doom guy (Pretty much all game characters that fight in the history of games), And you having your own versions of millions of armies. But when we battle and things look grim for me, I would have all my remaining Soldiers Divide by Zero. Thus obliterating us, the world, our universe. Not even the fade or purgatory would exist. And all would be lost.

So in light of this. I offer a way out: A Truce. I have been told to offer Peace is to be weak. But the smarter man sees Peace a sign of Strength and Courage.

Do you accept?

Daarb13: Goooood, Goooood. (Family Guy reference.)

GhostofOnyx: GET OUT OF MY HEAD! HOW DO PEOPLE DO THIS?

...

Yeah, they'll make wisecracks. There will be blood*

(*Cake.)

Zedax: HUUH! KILL THE HALO GAME HATER! Nawh Jk. But seriously, ODST was good for Characters. As for beating my corpse up, I would eat you before you landed a punch.

Here's what would happen:

You: LOL imma kill Na'viBambi! Even though he's already dead!

Me: ...

You: *Digging up my body*

Me: x.o? The fuck is this guy playing at? Oh wait, it's that guy...

You: BAMBI! Y U NO UPDATE! I KILL YOU!

Me: Fuck your shit. ZOMBIE POWAH! *Om nom nom*

You: Aaaaiiiiiiieeeee! GET IT OFF! AAGGH AHH! x.x

Me: *Burp* Fucking Zedax... *Gets back in grave*

See?

IceandFire66: Cool, SO DO I! And more cheese and milk. AND COOKIES! AND CAKE! (But the Cakes a lie so there won't be cake... :(

IS ALL FOR NOW! Don't forget my offer! AND REVIEW PWEASE!


	12. Goodbyes and Friendly Banter

Hai Guiz.

Only 4 people reviewed to my challenge! ONLY 4! But out of those 4, 3 guessed correct. And those people were:

Spartan-Ninja, GoldenDevil06, and Raindrops. So, all you have to do my faithful readers, is:

-Give a name for your character. (I'm tempted to not let Raindrops have a choice and call your character Rain and make you Female. XD)

-Choose a gender for your character. (Male or Female obviously.)

-Choose race/type of character. (Elite, Spartan, Civilian, Marine, ODST, etc.)

-Make a background. (Do they love anyone? Do they have families? etc.)

-Make a personality. (Are they kind, brutal, sensitive, funny and awesome? etc.)

I'm feeling nice at the minute, (things are going well at college), so here's what I'll do: If you want to be in the story. I'll add you no matter if you did the challenge. But remember, this will only be for a certain amount of time. I'm only doing this because:

The trailer for Halo: Reach, "Deliver Hope". Well, I saw it on the T.V, But it slipped my mind that the person holding the bomb was Kat. And I didn't see her arm separated from the Banshee Attack. But it did looks fucked over at the shoulder, like it was separated inside, but just holding together outside. So I'm going to change my version, (Yes GoldenDevil, made up that version myself.), to the Deliver Hope version. That way I can also incorporate the way the Old Noble Six, (Thom), dies. Thanks for telling me that, otherwise I'd never of known XD.

On a sadder note: That trailer, even though it looked so real even though it's purely composed of Graphics was so very, very amazingly epic, was quite sad.

But anyway. You wanna be in the story, you got it!

NEXT CHAPTER!

* * *

"I love you." Cortana spoke softy to the Man whom she loved with a passion, he answered her with a passionate kiss, which she returned. They broke apart about 20 odd seconds later from exploring each others mouths with their tongues. Mickey grimaced and laughed slightly, but recieved a cuff upside the head from Rookie.

"You tell him Rookie," Buck muttered. "They won't see each other for a while, show some compassion at least."

"Sorry Sir." Mickey mumbled in an apology. Cortana turned and hugged each ODST, Mickey included. Then Kat and Six. It was all very sappy. And once they all said their goodbyes, except Rookie, who gave her a friendly mock-salute. She really wondered if he was just mute. John came up to her one last time and enveloped her in a hug. He didn't hug too hard, seeing as he was wearing his MVII armour. But he did it with enough umph to show he was going to miss her. She hugged him as hard as possible, squeezing the armour. Although, she doubted he felt a thing. She whipered something to him, then took out some lipstick from a bag, both had been bought when she went girl shopping with Miranda, and put as much on for some reason.

Chief laughed when she kissed the top of his helmet, leaving a lip-image on the dark-green metal. She giggled as she saw the bright pink reflect in contrast off the green. They shared a laugh for a few minutes more, and then the ship next to them fired up.

Cortana sighed. "This is me. I'll see you John," she gave him another deep hug, squeezing her eyes shut. He whispered that he loved her into her ear, and she turned to walk to the ship.

"Stay safe John, I don't wanna come back to your armour without you in it." she said half seriously.

"Spartan's don't get killed in action..." He replied, also half serious.

"The only go missing." She finished the age old saying. "Don't go missing either."

"I won't." The Spartan said, shadowing the words he had said to her so many times before when she was A.I.

And with that, she left into the ship. The door shut, and it wasted no time in setting course for Scyillia. A few moments and the back roared to life and flames belched. It blasted off from the dock with great speed. And Chief couldn't help but feel Cortana would _still_ get into trouble.

* * *

"DMR's?" Chief said curiously to himself as he aimed it down the firing range. Kat had come to him and shown him the Rifle to get his mind off worrying about his love. It resembled the Battle Rifle a lot. Only, it was a One-Shot. "Interesting," he whispered to himself again, he took aim at the upper torso of a dummy target made from ballistics gel. And fired. A ping sounded through the air as the bullet left the barrel of the weapon, and it hit the dummy in the centre of the chest. The bullet made a smacking sound as it hit, but otherwise punched clean through, a small white mark could be seen where the bullet had penetrated. A real wound would have left a lot of blood on the back wall, with the victim bleeding out slowly.

Chief liked it. A lot.

"So all the tech we had on Reach was supposedly lost when the Covenant glassed it?" he asked Kat, who was getting to know the Battle Rifle. She placed it down in discontent. and looked to Chief.

"Yep, but Dr. Halsey salvaged what she could. That Invincibility shield of yours, AKA Shield Lockdown, along with the Jetpack and the Sprint Boost. As well as the Active Camo, is all thanks to her." She noted. "And, If you didn't notice, I have new armour myself. It's the same design as my old armour, same colour too. I like the Air-Assault helmet, suits me. But I chose not to have exactly what you had. You can only fit so much into one armour system." She wagged a finger, "So I chose a Hologram Projecter, and Active Camo, the Sprint, aaannd the Jetpack. I mean, there's no need for Lockdown when I'm Invisible huh? But you, you like going in guns blazing so, you know."

Chief nodded to this, he liked the tactic of, "Shoot first, ask questions later." It struck fear into enemies. "But when I like, I can be ever so stealthy, hence the gren colour to help blend in, unlike you Miss "Oh-so-shiny-blue." He messed about. He noted her arm again. He was curious about that.

"So erm, if you don't mind me asking: How _did_ you lose your arm?"

Kat laughed, which surprised Chief. He had seen his fellow Spartan's of battles past have limbs blown clean off, and live to see another day. But not be happy or laugh about it. She paused to take off her helmet, once she had, she placed it on the sill before the range.

"Chief. I am a cocky little bitch... Still am." She chuckled to herself. "But I lost it during an assault on a Covenant Carrier just 2 weeks before Six replaced the Old Six. Thom. He died destroying the Carrier. You want me to go through it?"

"Please do."

"O.K, stop me if you get bored."

* * *

_Kat couldn't help but shake the feeling she'd made the wrong choice. Offering to take the bomb wasn't the best of Ideas, she wondered what would happen as she passed several marines, but she was the fastest in the squad, next to Thom and Emile. But she'd volunteered nonetheless, and she'd see this through. She was lost in her thoughts again, nearly ran into a marine who was firing in the direction of their enemy: The Covenant. They had shown up about 20 years ago, and Kat had been fighting them ever since. She fired the MD6 she held in the right hand. She had always had a knack for using it. Like riding a bike. You never forgot how to use it, care for it, and put it to good use. She fired again, she wasn't really hitting anything. So she decided to stop firing, setting the bomb might be a good idea right about now, and she did just that, she pressed a few buttons as she ran... and it was set._

_Kat reckoned she could make the gap though, __It was set to go off in 5 minutes. She would arm it, use her jetpack to get aboard the Capitol Ship, chuck the bomb in, and get the hell out before fire reigned down. It was a good plan. Simple yet effective. However doing it and thinking of it were 2 different things. She saw Emile beckoning to her to move up, __She wasted no time in jumping over a fallen Brute that had just been downed by a Sniper, and doing exactly what Emile was signalling for her to do._

_Again and again she fired, hitting enemies this time, Banshee bombs went off around her and the marines, sending them flying to their deaths. She would honour their sacrifices later, right now, she had a job to finish. She briefly saw Emile to the side of her as she passed, blasting down an Elite with his Infamous shotgun as it attempted to shoot her. The skull on his helmet seemed to smile with glee as the Elites blood spattered across the Spartan's visor. Kat smiled slightly at her fellow team members victory, She ran in-between 2 marines that were shooting at an Elite behind cover, she dodged a plasma bolt, ducked a second one and fired upon the Elite that was hiding from the marines. She saw his head from where she was and hadn't spared a second in pulling the trigger. He fell to the ground, blood shooting from his head. Kat kept on running, and fired again into a Grunt that was ever so unfortunate to get in the way of her barrel, she saw an Elite right in front of her, she could attempt to get past him, but she didn't think she could do it before the Energy Sword he carried embedded itself in her neck. She flinched as she saw him swing it toward __her, but he fell in an instant as a bullet penetrated his chest at high speed. Thanks to a certain Spartan's sniping. She made a mental note to thank Jun later._

_"Almost there" she told herself, hoping she'd make it. There was a piece of debris in her way, and just before she jumped, she saw Carter, her Captain, bury a knife in an Elites back. And then she was in the air. She fired 4 shots in succession, hitting a Brute off to her right. She also saw a Grunt falling from out the top of her visor as she pulled her pistol away from her ever so recent kill, shot down by a marines own pistol. She glided and soon, roughly landed. Shaking it off, she put on a burst of speed. There were more explosions around her, green and deadly in their diameter. Looks like she'd been tagged by a Banshee. That was not good._

_The last thing Kat did with the bomb entailed being closely hit by that Banshee that had tagged her. It hit right to front-left, and she'd taken aim at the cockpit just as she'd seen it, but it was obviously too late. She screamed in agony as the plasma spread of the bomb struck her chest, visor, and right shoulder. She was sent into a cart-wheel, and seconds later, hit the ground on her left shoulder, stopping to be sprawled out along the ground. She felt as if the very suns of Reach were inside her armour, dragging down her right arm. She moaned in pain, gasping slightly for air. She was losing conciousness, but then her focus turned to bomb. She'd dropped it! She'd failed. Now they were doomed, and she had no one to blame but herself. She barely moved, but she closed her eyes for 2 seconds to re-open them to Thom. He stood over her in silence as plasma bolts veered past. Explosions racked the ground, sending tremors through the earth, as well as Kat herself. Thom looked at her in a certain way. She craned her neck to face the bomb. She saw it only had a minute and 49 seconds before it blew._

_She nearly cried as she saw Thom pick it up. She whispered, "Thom." trying to gain his attention, to stop him from doing what he was about to do. She should have done this, she should have been the one to destroy the Capital Ship. She wasn't jealous. She was just angry. Angry and ashamed of herself. She had messed up and now Thom was going to pay for her mistake. She saw the jetpack in his armour deploy, and he shot off into the air not a moment later. She couldn't move to stop him. She tried but felt so much burning. All emanating from her right arm. She became distinctly aware of a coppery-metallic smell, and felt warmth blossoming all over her right shoulder and upper chest._

_Blood. _

_The plasma had done it's job of burning into her skin, because now she couldn't feel her arm. Now her wounds would bleed profoundly, and refuse to heal. Such was the devastation of plasma. She wondered how extensive the damage to her arm was. And whether or not she could continue on. She saw a speck of light in the sky below the Capitol Ship dissipate into nothing._

_"Looks like Thom's made it inside without the bomb blowing up yet." she thought. She was somewhat happy about that. It meant he could probably get out in time. She waited, and hoped someone would come and find her, but mostly, she hoped Thom wouldn't pay for her stupid mista-_

_Suddenly the Capital Ship was engulfed in flames, and a massive explosion rang out. It was virtually and practically obliterated within seconds. Wiped from existence. She screamed in anger in her head. Berated herself for failing. Thom didn't make it out alive. He was dead. There was absolutely no way he could have lived. She flinched as the pain eat at the shoulder, and flinched again when she felt a heavy foot upon her chest. It was fleeting, and the pressure lifted. She realized an Elite had stomped on her as he ran._

_Of course. The Covenant's Capitol Ship had been destroyed. They were retreating. _

_For Kat. It was bitter-sweet. Thom. Was. Dead. And it was all her fault. She then did something he hadn't done for almost 20 years. She closed her eyes, and slowly started to weep. Her squad-mate had just died from her own fault. This wasn't a victory in vain. It had been paid, earned in blood. But not just of Thom's, but several hundreds of marines and soldiers. Not to mention civilians._

_

* * *

_

_She awoke hours later in a daze. Her head throbbed, and her body ached. She was aware that her middle was bandaged, and her left wrist was in a cast. So was her right ankle. Without warning, fresh memories of the oh-so-recent battle flooded her thoughts, and she blinked away fresh tears, and looked around. She was aware she was currently lying in a hospital bed. Covered in the standard Hospital dressing gown which was concealing her nakedness. She was surprised the Doctors had gone through the trouble of taking off her armour. It took even the most highly trained Spartan to remove all their armour in 2 and a half hours. She suddenly felt very haggard, as if she were still lying on the battlefield with plasma eating through her arm._

_Her arm!_

_She lifted it and looked, only to scream out in shock at what was in place of her arm. A mechanical cybernetic. Not a flash and blood limb, but a fucking robot prosthetic. She looked at it like it was some hideous growth in the shape of a Grunt. This monstrosity was supposed to be a replacement? Why the hell could she not her proper arm?_

_Kat slowly began to cry again._

_

* * *

_

"I have to say, It is actually very useful for smashing things open. Then again. It is my own fault." she mocked herself. Finishing her story.

"I see." Chief finally replied. "So you don't ever think about getting a real arm back? We've had the tech to do that for 2 years now." he said, obviously trying to get her mind off Thom. Chief believed it wasn't her fault, but that of the Banshee Pilots. Kat was just at the wrong place, at the wrong time.

"I know. But like I said: It comes in handy. Plus, it grows on ya after a while, makes you appreciate it, you know? Better to have this than nothing at all. Besides, I find that it makes me feel somewhat... Unique."

"As if being a 7 ft tall walking tank isn't enough(!)" Chief joked.

He recieved a hit from Kat's mechanical arm for that. But it was all in good banter.

"So..." Chief spoke again after a couple of minutes of silence. Trying to start the conversation again. "Six says you rescued her?"

"Yeah, yeah I did, and it was a close call too." She replied, kicking off more convo. "An Elite Zealot from a Covie Kill team was about to rape her ass with an Energy Sword. If I hadn't of had a Sniper Rifle and been a second later, she'd be very dead right now."

Chief was curious about something else too. He had no problem when it came to that sort of thing. But he just felt he had to know.

"So, is there something... you know... between you two?"

To that, Kat went bright red, even with her somewhat dark coloured skin. She giggled and said, "That obvious?"

"Well, you did give her a "More-than-friendly" hug when I first saw you in the hallway."

"Yeah, there is." She stated in a "Matter-of-fact" kind of way, "Is that a problem ...Sir?" she said, getting all defensive all of a sudden, in a friendly way, but she had added the "Sir" because she did want to know if her commanding officer had a problem with her lifestyle.

"No, no." Chief replied, "I was just curious is all. I mean..." Chief braced for a punch, "I don't want you too stopping to fuck in the middle of a battle." He finished in laughter. Kat looked shocked, but then smiled and laughed. Just as Chief predicted, he recieved a much harder hit from Kat's mecha-arm. He actually _felt_ that one.

"Unbegetable bastard!" She laughed, pushing him playfully. He shoved her back and they just shared a laugh for a couple of moments.

"I haven't actually said anything like that since asking kelly if she wanted to lay me for a bet!" he wheezed, still in laughter to some degree.

"Under that cold exterior beats a heart, even with a sense of humor!" Kat said, still joking about.

"Oh yes, I'm a closet sappy!" he chuckled.

Despite missing Cortana, he was gald he could have this moment to not need to worry for her, and just enjoy himself.

* * *

**A/N:** Ahh there we go, some Kat and Chief bonding. No fear, there will be no affairs here. Although, what it there was, then Cortana got with Six?

Yeah, I'm kinda going off on one aint I? I'll just leave it there for now.

* * *

Answers to Readers:

UndeadSamurai01: You had some cool Ideas, want to be in my story?

Spartan-Ninja: Shweet! We be team-mates now! And as for your thoughts to what happened: Yes, it hit somewhere else. Yes. And Yes. Good Job! Your in the story! Like I said, leave it after a review what you'd like to be. :)

Zadok: Thanks for all the reviews! I'm glad you like the story!

IceandFire66: Damn Straight! I think that being called: "UNSC" or "United Nations Space Command" You'd at least think there would be some nationalities _other_ than American -_- So I made Six British-English! WEWT!

Som Skwang: Same Moron, Same. BUT THEY'RE BACK! :D

Avitrid: lolwot?

XboxDragon. Your Username pleases me. And as for the story, yes, you can't wait, so here was the next chapter!

BloodWolf432: Sorry, I try not to.

I 3 Halo: Yeah, rumoured, but you'll have to wait and see what I have in store for him.

FuryanJedi13: LOL! U NO GOT REACH! But seriously get it. Epic... DOESN'T. EVEN. FUCKING. DESCRIBE IT! And as for Cortana:

Well of course it's hot, I'd let her take advantage of me! ;)

Xima Prodigy: I cannot stress to you how much I dislike "xx" around a name. Sorry to bitch, but I _despise _it. But yeah, Six shall be female so lesbian sex may ensue!

GoldenDevil06: Yep, you are correct. Well done! YOU ARE IN DEH STUURY! Leave all character details after/in a review.

Kris: What Noble Member wore CQB?

ArchAngel: Sorry dude, but that's way it goes. You should have got Reach if you didn't want me to spoil it. GET IT! GET IT NAOW!

RainDrops: You've though about that for a while eh? As Epic as that was, you are more or less spot on. So Welcome to my Story. Choose what you want your character to be like, and leave it in/on a review. :D

EmoChild123456: Oh, well why the fuck not! Go on then!

* * *

THAT'S ALL FOR NOW! DON NOT FORGET TO REVIEW!

It's right there, go on. That button just looks so lonely, maybe you should click him and make him feel better. I think your cursor and my review button were a match made in heaven, go on, let them get to know each othe-

-CARRY OUT THE AFORMED DEED SODOMATE!

(Do it faggot) XD


	13. Newbies

O.K, taken me a while getting everyone into the story, (I'm attempting to plan things out beforehand), but that's now all the people I will allow in the story, for now. If you want to be something other than a Spartan then I don't mind. But anyway, In this chapter, we will bring in some peoples characters why not? As well as a certain friend of Chief's.

There is going to be a major update soon. I'm going to re-do some chapters. Main reason being, that I made it so Chief went to Reach to find that Spartans at the wrong date. It turns out that between _Halo_ and _Halo 2_. Chief rescued Dr Halsey there, as well as some other Spartans: Fred, Kelly and Linda.

Now here's how things played out: Linda was on Reach with John. They fought on Reach, but Linda was nearly killed, and nearly dies. To stop this, she is taken to the Pillar of Autumn and put in cryo to stop her dying. Chief then goes into cryo state. Which is why, as the other Spartans are still off fighting, that he is presumed to be the last Spartan alive. During the events of _Halo: Combat Evolved, _the Autumn was shot down by the Covies. And all the cryo pods are released, (obviously Chief was out his pod), so Linda floated about near the Halo ring. At the end of Halo, when the ring is about to explode and Chief and Cortana are in the Longsword, they pick her up. Of course, we don't get told this. But seeing as right after this is when Chief picks up Halsey, she heals Linda, and Linda lives. Now, she doesn't appear through any of Halo 2, 3, or ODST. Or even Reach. No references either. But don't worry, we'll be saying hello to her soon enough, as she is the certain friend I was going on about.

Now, for all you interested in the whole, "Six is a girl, and is with Kat", thing. Then why not read my story, "Two Spartan's Love"? It's going well, it's NOT a lemon fic where theres two minutes of lust filled sex. It is a romance fic between two women. Simple as that. ^^

Anyway, I suggest you check it out. It's going well, people really like it. Also:

TESTICLES.

That is all.

* * *

"Soo... who are the new guys?" Mickey asked his gunnery sergeant. Buck turned to him.

"I don't know Mickey, Veronica says they're additions to the squad," Buck informed him, "And who knows? They could be good company. Besides, you'll get on just fine with them, they're all ODST's."

"Yeah, that's a good point." Romeo mumbled inbetween a mouthful of food. They were all, (Bucks squad that is), sitting around a table in the base mess hall. It was lucky the Covenant hadn't discovered the location yet. Mickey, Buck, Romeo, Rookie and Dutch were all seated around it. Rookie, as per usual, was sitting at the end, being quiet, Romeo was polishing his SRS99 with loving care, Mickey was still having a convo with Buck about the new additions to the squad, and Dutch was looking at Rookie, throwing bits of screwed up paper at his helmet, which was probably yet another attempt to get him to speak. All of the squad had done this, but had all given up save Dutch, and he wasn't giving in.

'Plink' went a bullet casing off of Rookies helmet. Dutch seemed to have switched to little spent cartridges he picked up from the mess hall floor. He also wondered _why_ they were there, but didn't really care if they proved a good ammo source for his bombardment of Rookie. Rookie on the other hand, was now facing Dutch. Due to the visor, if he had an annoyed expression, it couldn't be seen. But he raised his hand in a rude gesture. Dutch laughed and everyone else turned to see what the cause was, and they too laughed.

"Leave the Rookie alone, Dutch," Buck ordered his squad-mate. "He'll talk when he wants to."

Rookie raised his hand in a 'Thank-you!' gesture toward Buck, who nodded. "Ahh, you'll speak. One way or another." Dutch told the silent instigator.

Just then, Six and Kat walked in, and Mickey noted that upon entering, they had stopped holding hands. He hid a chuckle. They crossed the gap and sat down next to everyone, and Kat spoke up.

"O.K guys, here's the news: New squad is coming in soon. So at least pretend like you're disciplined." She started. "Also, Afterwards, me, Six, and Chief will be going up to the Forward unto Dawn. Meaning when those Covenant come through the slipspace, you're going to have to deal with any that get past our defences, and get into Earth. Meanwhile Linda will be sticking with you, the last thing she needs is being stuck on the frontline."

"Er, who's Linda?" Mickey asked, and Kat chuckled. But Six was unsure of who she was too.

"Seriously, who's she?" Six piped up.

"She, Linda, is a Spartan. From what I hear she served with Chief on Reach. But she got badly wounded so she's been in cryo all up until now."

"Nearly 3 years?" Mickey butted in.

"Well yeah, Chief wanted the best surgeon there is to patch her up, and now Dr. Halsey is back, and she had the time." Kat stated. "So now Linda is fine, up and about. Although, she may need some training to get back into the swing of things. But she is supposedly, the best Spartan ever with the SRS."

"Can't be better than me." Romeo said, patting his own SRS99. Kat and Six both scoffed at the remark.

"Sorry bigshot, no ODST can outmatch a Spartan." Kat told the marine. But he refused to have it, instead, a major argument would have broken out if not for Veronica entering the room, with 4 ODST's in her wake.

"Settle down people. Newbies are here." Dare laughed.

"I'm not a newbie." one with a Brazilian accent told the captain.

"Whatever you say. Anyway, this guy," Signalling the one who had just spoke, "Is Ricardo Flores, prefers 'Rick'," She then pointed to a guy with a medium sized katana on his back, and no shoulder armour, "This one's called Natsuhiko Takemoto, prefers his callsign 'Samurai'," she then pointed to a man with a old Greece Spartans helmet on the chestplate, "This one's called Alexander Danes. Prefers 'Great', ...sounds bigheaded to me. And lastly, this guy," Signalling the last OSDT, "Is Tony Dizzono. Prefers 'Dizzy'."

Buck was slowly nodding, as if trying to take in their names. The rest of the ODST's were in silence, still waiting for Dare to speak. Until Mickey started talking.

"Well come on then new guys, come sit down."

That broke the ice, and the new ODST's walked over to the table and sat down. The table was pretty big and was now pretty crowded. 10 ODST's and 2 Spartans. Mickey was starting to talk to the newbies, but once again, Dare spoke to them.

"O.K. New dudes. Here's the pecking order: I'm boss, he's secondary boss," she pointed to Buck, who gave a small nod. "You follow my orders if I give them, you follow his orders if he gives them. Simple as that." All 4 nodded. One of them, the one called 'Samurai' took of his helmet, and scuffed his hair. It was short-ish and black. He looked Japanese, but it was most likely that he was. He didn't say anything, he just looked at the others, then put his helmet back on.

"Anyway. Get to know each other, I'm off. Six, if you'll come with me." Dare mused.

Six was surprised to hear this, but nodded and got up. Kat didn't really want to stick with a bunch of ODST's, but she may as well get to know the soldiers she'd be fighting alongside in the long run. 'Dizzy' spoke up and asked, "So er, food? I'm pretty hungry." he sounded American.

"Now you're talking," Dutch said to him, "Over there by the counters, there's some ration packs. May not be a banquet, but they do the trick." Dizzy nodded and got up, looking over the counters when he got there, and returning with several packs in his arms. He chucked a pack to each ODST and the one Spartan, and all seems eager to eat.

"Cool." Samurai finally spoke up in a Japanese accent. He seemed to have gotten beef and pasta.

The other ODST's commented on their own packs, Buck got pork and beans, and gave a content sigh. "Nothing like rationed pork."

"I got chicken!" Kat said happily. Romeo asked to trade his own 'Pork and Rice', but Kat declined. All of them began to eat, and while they were, 'Great' started a convo between himself and Dare.

"So captain," he asked in an American accent, "Got a guy?" he laughed. Some of the new guys joined his laughter, but no one from Bucks squad did, they all turned to Buck.

"As a matter of fact, she does. So you keep your hands off her." He said half-serious. Great immediately got it.

"Ha, nah it's O.K. I got my own woman. Been married 5 years." He said, lifting a hand and taking off his glove, revealing a gold band on his second left-side finger. Buck smiled and retuned to eating, and more conversations broke out on the table.

"So, er, Samurai, why you got no shoulder pads. Aren't you freaked you'll get hurt easier?" Dutch asked the Jap. He didn't respond at first, through the fact that he was eating, but when he finished his mouthful, he placed the ration pack on top his helmet next to him.

"Reduces Silhouette." he said simply, then he went back to eating.

"Man o' few words." Dutch said with raised eyebrows, "What about the sword."

Again. Samurai stopped eating. "It's traditional." then he resumed eating. Dutch laughed at his short-wording.

"He's like a robot, innie?"

More conversation spread around the table. But meanwhile, Dare and Six were going to Lord Hood. Dare had told Six that he wanted to see her. They were almost to reach the doors of Hood's ready room, and Dare asked,

"So Six, I've been wondering: What's your name? I mean, I know everyone in my squad's names. I know Kat. I even know the Chief's name is John. But I do not know yours.

Six had never actually been asked that before. Sure, on Reach she had been referred to by her name. But after joining Noble team. It had been 'Six' all the way. so she just stuck with it. She didn't mind though.

"Faith. My name's Faith."

"Ha, it suits you, actually." Dare said after a couple of seconds.

They made it to Hood's room, and let them enter. They immediately stood to attention. But Hood waved them down. "At ease. I just want to tell you something. Six. On Reach, you fought valiantly, and we all know this. Kat too. As well as the rest of Noble, god rest their souls. But you lost your helmet back on Reach. Now, we got you another, but while we did. Our foremen accidently ordered in a full suit of Spartan-Armour. Now this was fine, seeing as it was the new MVII armour. But what Im saying is we think you deserve it. Head down to Dr. Halsey in her lab and talk with her. You can get your new armour specialized to your liking from there on."

"Thank-you sir. This was unexpected." Six replied.

"It's the least we could do for you. After all you did for us."

* * *

"Nice colour!" Dr. Halsey commented. Six had gone for orange as a primary colour, with white as a secondary. It looked quite intimidating. She had gone for the standard issue Air-Assault helmet, like Kat, but gone with a 'UA/Multithreat' shoulderplate for the left arm. But for her right was a 'Mjolnir [R]', otherwise known as 'Recon'. Her chestplate was the normal. She liked it like that. Dr. Halsey gave her a choice of what abilites she could have too. And she had chosen the active camo, the jetpack, the sprint, and the armour lockdown.

She flexed in her new armour. It did have a certain quality to it that made her feel powerful, along with the fact the armour was slimmer, meaning that she still looked feminine in it, the armour adjusting to the curves of her body. It was snug, and would protect her at the same time.

"Well there you are Faith." Dr. Halsey said happily. Six was surprised to hear her name.

"How do you know my name?" she asked the scientist.

"Honey, I trained all the Spartans there ever were. So I know about you. But I never refer to a Spartan by their tag. After all, you're human beings, not robots."

Six smiled and gave her a hug. "Well, thank-you then. Also, I met someone who looks like you for the most part."

"My daughter Cortana?"

"That's her. She's really nice."

"Well she is like her mother, It's just a shame she wants to get involved with the UNSC on the military side of things. But she'll do fine I'm sure. Especially after you saved her. I never thanked you for that."

"It's O.K. It was my orders, and I'm glad I followed them. I hope she does good at Scyllia but I have to go. Take care Catherine." Six said, seeing as Dare was tapping her on the shoulder to go. Dr. Halsey said her goodbye to her daughters saviour and smiled.

* * *

**A/N:** Ugggh, I' sorry if that chapter was really shitty. I just needed to introduce some peoples characters and get Six in her new armour. Linda will come in next chapter, and next chapter, all hell breaks loose.

* * *

Answers to Readers:

SpartanM60: A) *See all previous gripes and moans about punctuation and errors* B) DEAL WITH IT. Seriously, I can't help that, C) I know that. D) You're using outdated weapons Spartan!

GoldenDevil06: Your ODST character is in!

emochild123456: Not putting your character in just yet. ODST's first.

Spartan-Ninja: Your ODST character is in!

IceandFire66: Yeah. His name is Thom, by the way.

Raindrops: I am still really tempted to turn your character into a female! RUUR! ODST's first.

UndeadSamurai01: Your ODST hath dropped in.

Kris: Allllrighty then.

Avitrid: That's actually a brilliant idea! I might add them all in!

Zadok: Your ODST is in.

petery132: You are waaay to enthusiastic, I'm not that good.

ReviewMaster0525: How is being a retard good? And er, yes, I shall rock on. \m/

ArcAngel88: Yes Kat and Six are both female. Both Lesbian. Did you not read the last chapter? XD

Until next time guys!


	14. Moving Out

Apologies, I accidently overwrite this chapter too. (I KNOW! I KNOW! I'M SORRY!)

Linda finally comes out of Cryo, Everyone is finally ready, they all move out, Linda, because of her condition stays on the ground with the ODST's and links up with some certain comedic Spartans that are never really to be taken seriously. The RvB gang. And Chief and his gang of Spartans get to the ships. Long stroy short, I will come back and re-write this.

Again, sorry!


	15. Newbies, Newbies Everywhere

Hey Guise! Another chapter!

And in the same week! Lucky you lot!

K guise, guess which peoples certain Spartans are coming in? HMM? GUESS?

I FUCKIN' SAID GUE-

...Yeah, your ones. Also 2 OC Spartans, well, sorta copied. A plot twist if you will, all will be explained.

All RvB characters too, for the most part. No Meta. But Tex! Cos she's badass. If you don't know why I have Tex, (Yes she did die, technically), just watch Revelation. She is 10x more badass than she already was. Kicking the shit out 4 guys, with her fists and feet, pushing them through portals only to re-kick their asses once they emerge from said portals, and then rape them over with epic martial arts.

And something else: I never included things like kneeguards or wrist armour for our Spartans. So, Six has Grenadier, Linda had Grenadier, as well as the gold arm data-pad thingy. And Kat has her own kneeguards that she always has. Just a small update there.

Next chapter.

* * *

"Why are we here?" Tucker asked the Spartan next to him.

"Uugh, don't start that again..." Church replied. "We're here, because we all got tired of being cannon fodder for freelancers? At least we're out of those bases."

"Which I am grateful for!" said a Spartan, walking over to them. His armour was orange.

"Shut up Grif." said another Spartan in red armour. He was standing about 2 metres away. "Nobody likes you."

"Lot's of people like me!" Grif argued. And another Spartan, in Pink-

"IT'S LIGHT RED!"

**Holy fuck! How did the story speak to me? Jeez, fine. In _light red_ armour.**

"Thankyou."

The Spartan in red turned to the one that argued with me. "Who in the sam hell are you talking to Donut?"

"The writer Sarge, he thinks my armour is pi-

**It is fucking pink!**

"-NO IT IS NOT! IT'S LIGHT RED!"

"How the hell are you talking to the writer?" Sarge interrupted, "And what d'ya mean, 'Writer'?"

**Don't worry about it, go back to what you were doing.**

"Umm, O.K. Mysterious voice." Sarge muttered. "...Creepy."

**Getting back to where we were please.**

"Lot's of people like me!" Grif argued. And another Spartan, in _light red_, (**Happy now?**), armour, trudged over and said,

"Don't worry Grif, I like you."

"Ah thanks. Told ya Sarge." Grif said smugly.

"Donut, shoot Grif." Sarge ordered.

"Sir?" Donut asked.

"You heard me Donut. Shoot Grif. No? Simmons, shoot Grif!"

"Yessir!" a shout was heard from a way away. A shot rang out.

"Owww!" Grif shouted, the burst from the battle rifle Simmons had fired, had hit him in the leg, but gone through the armour.

"What are we talking about?" said yet another Spartan, that was still wearing the ancient issue MV helmet, who came up behind Tucker and Church.

"Nothing Caboose. Don't you mind. Why don't you go back to watching for Covenant?" Church told the Spartan.

"Oh. O.K Church, I will go look for Covenant." He said quite happily, turning from the group and walking back in the direction he came from.

* * *

_3 hours later._

* * *

"So where are they?" Simmons asked anyone who cared to listen.

"Not here, obviously." Said a female voice, that certain voice resided in black armour. Tex's armour.

Tucker came over and tried to make a joke. "So, are they in yo-"

"Don't even think on it." Tex said, raising a MD6 to him.

"O.K O.K!" Tucker said quickly. He was attempting not to throw in, 'Bow chicka bow bow'

"So when do you think they'll be here?" Simmons asked again.

"Oh! Let me just look into the future with my mind and I'll tell you!" Tex said, ever so sarcastically.

"...You were being sarcastic weren't you?"

"Maybe."

"Guys! I have not found any Covenant! Why have I not found any?" Caboose shouted from a little off.

"Caboose, why don't you go and check on Lopez," Church suggested, "He's still somewhat broken since Wash shot him."

"Fine," Cabbose stated. "But don't come running to me when he turns into a evil robot and shoots everyone with laser beams!" He then promptly turned and left in a huff.

"What... Where did he even get that idea?" Grif asked, to which half the group shrugged.

"Maybe it's from when I was a floating ball of doom? That shot lasers out it's eye?" Church wondered.

"Cut the chit chat, Grif, come help me with this blockade!" Sarge shouted to Grif, who was now pushing a huge concrete barrier.

"What! Why me? Ask Simmons!" Grif complained.

"Because, moving concrete slabs can be dangerous, and I need to put you at risk on a regular basis!" Sarge ranted, "Also, I don't wanna push this thing myself, it's boring, and I need someone to insult while it gets pushed, mostly, by you."

"Sarge, you'll never stop hating me will you?" Grif wondered.

"Nope." Sarge replied in a heartbeat.

"Gee thanks."

* * *

"ETA?" Miranda asked over the intercom. "We're all set up here, we're just waiting on you 4."

"Understood Ma'am. 20 minutes at most, the Pelican's going fast." John replied.

"Oh and Chief?" Miranda asked.

"Yes?"

"Good to be working with you again."

"Likewise Commander."

The feed dispersed. Miranda sighed. These conversations she had with people we're way too short. The only person she could even talk to right now was Errisa. Who of course was more than happy to, but she wanted to speak with Cortana again, they had been good friends. Now the Covenant had to show up over this side of the world.

"Ma'am?" An Ensign on the bridge asked.

"Yes Ensign?" she replied.

"There's and escort class UNSC ship making its way here at high speed. All other ships have acknowledged it, but not taken action. It's not the Spartans."

She knew it wasn't the Spartans. They were taking a Pelican up here. So who was this?

"Ma'am?" The Ensign asked again.

"Yes?" She asked again. Slightly irritated for some reason.

"It, It's a message from Lord Hood."

"Put it through." She said immediately.

The screen in front of her flashed, and soon, a man in a white suit, and formal cap popped up.

"Commander Keyes, this is Lord Hood speaking." The man in front of her said. She acknowledged him with a nod. "Commander, I'm on my way to the Dawn. You may have noticed my ship on long range scanners."

She nodded again. "You're covering the gap pretty fast sir."

"That's because we're trying to get here quickly." He explained "The Covenant haven't shown up, but they will soon, and I wanted to present this myself."

"Present what sir?"

"Oh, something. Something important. We'll be there soon. Hood out." Was all that he said, and the video feed cut.

* * *

"Rookie? We almost there?" Mickey shouted to the silent protagonist as he drove. Mickey was starting to feel more queasy by the second. Rookie shook his head and held up 3 fingers. Which most likely meant 3 miles. Mickey groaned and Dutch chuckled to himself. The entire trip so far had been nice and simple, a couple of the ODST's were in conversation. But Linda had been quiet the entire trip, looking out with her sniper rifle for any signs of trouble.

Samurai, like Rookie, had done nothing but communicate the entire trip with nods, shakes of the head, or hand signals. Dutch liked that. It was someone else for him to try and make talk often. Great had been taking pot-shots at anything that wasn't taken use of, seeing as they were passing through deserted towns evacuated earlier that week. Seeing as this would be the backline, they'd do no good if it were full of Civilians, he had been doing so, right up until Linda smacked him in the visor with the butt of her SRS.

"Dammit woman." He cursed. She just laughed and went back to aiming.

"So... are we there yet?" Rick piped up.

"Don't start that." Buck ordered.

* * *

"Sir," Miranda greeted Hood as he came through the hatch. Several guards were at his back. "I'm glad you've brought protection sir, but this is no place for you. Even if you do want to present this occasion."

"I know Commander, but this is quite a special occasion. You'll see why." He turned. "Spartans! Front and Centre!"

"Spartans?" Miranda pried, she wondered if Lord Hood had intercepted the Pelican and brought the Spartans quicker. If so, why was this occasion so special?

What surprised Miranda, was that the Spartans that walked out from the hatch, were not the Spartans she had heard of, especially not the Chief. These Spartans were... new.

"Commander Keyes," Lord Hood addressed. "Meet: Sierra 4-1, 4-2, 4-3, and 4-4." He signalled to the first nearest him.

"This is Sierra 4-1." Signalling a female Spartan, that had a EVA varient helmet, a crude skull painted, or carved, onto the visor, with a UA/BASE Security piece on her left shoulder, and an Operator piece on her right. She had HP/PARAFOIL on her chestplate. At her utility, was a Tactical Hardcase, and her knee-guards were Grenadier. She also had a Tacpad GPS on her wrist. She took her helmet off and gave a smile. Her hair was raven black, shoulder length, and straight, curling at the tips. She appeared Asian, but white. Like mixed ethnicities. "Her name is Yuffie."

Miranda noted her armour colour was black, with the secondary parts gold. All the had at her hip was a pistol, but only, not UNSC issue. Customised. It's barrel was quite long, and by the looks of things it was triple-barrelled, it was purely silver, save the handle, made of polished wood. And there was a pendant hanging from the end of the handle. But apart from that, its most distinguishable feature had to be the serpent shape on the end of the barrels. It was like the old 20th century Revolvers. She also saw that on her chestplate was no knife, but on her back, a 4 spiked... ninja shruikain... thing. Each point ended in a arrowhead. It looked devestating.

"This is Sierra 4-2," Hood signalled the next. "James." He had his helmet under his arm, Scout issue with a black visor. He was distinguishable by his hair, which was black, but had wicked streaks of purple raced through it. He had black eyes, and a small nose. A small scar on his bottom lip. He had FJ/Para with sniper bullets across it on his left, and his right was more of a drum with a huge knife attached to it, and Tactical/Patrol for his chestplate. In place of kneeguards was Gungnir. And he had a Tactical/Softcase utility. The colour of his armour was green, fully. He gave Miranda a small smile. On his back was an SRS99D.

"This is Sierra 4-3," Hood now walked past Yuffie and James to signal the third Spartan. "Rain." The Spartan gave a small nod. He wore a JFO helmet that had a silver faceplate, and EVA variant shoulderplates. Assault/Sapper marked his chestplate. FJ/PARA marked his Kneeguards, his utility was a Trauma kit. His armour colour was mainly a cobalt, the secondary was red. For a reason unbeknown to her, Miranda saw he had a Covenant class plasma pistol at his hip.

"And last but not least," Hood said, signalling a Spartan that looked slightly smaller in terms of body size, but as tall as them. He must have been quite skinny, "Cloud. Sierra 4-4." Hood finsihed. Miranda saw he must of been muscular even though skinny because the suit fit quite snugly. His helmet was Mk 6 issue with a silver visor, he had Mjolnir Mk 6 on both shoulders, and had the standard chestplate in place. He had a Tactical hardcase as a utility, Grenadier for Kneeguards, (they're really liked aren't they?), and Assault/Breacher as wrist armour. He took of his helmet and smiled.

Miranda had never felt like a schoolgirl for years, but all of a sudden, she felt 17 again. She looked at this guys face and, she felt weak at the knees. Handsome could be a word you could use. But he was more... _cute. _But so good looking. As well as that, his hair was spiky and blond. Literally. Like, he had spent hours putting hairgel in it.

His light blue eyes bore into hers. "Commander?" He asked. His voice was soft, gentle, _smooth. _But as if so much sadness had entered his world, as if he had endured so much pain, Miranda snapped out of whatever trance she may have been it.

"Y-Yes?" She asked, blinking.

"Are you O.K?"

"I'm fine, I, I'm just surprised. Where did these Spartans come from sir?" She finished with that last aimed at Hood.

"It was only a month ago that we started the Spartan IV program. They're the same as the II's, but they were just easier to Augment." Hood started to explain, "Advancements in technology saw the need for more Spartans. A group of UNSC scientists figured out how to give Augmentations to people without a risk of killing them. Of course, sometimes it can change certain aspects, as Sierra 302's hair might indicate. Only these 4 volunteered, surprisingly." He continued, "For a reason we can't tell, Cloud here didn't require Augmentations, but we left it alone. Anyway, that was why I am here. But still, they're under your command."

"Understood sir." She responded. Looking at all 4 Spartans.

"I must go now, Like you say, it really isn't safe. Take care, and keep doing the UNSC proud Commander." Lord Hood complimented, and turned to leave.

After silence, Lord Hood leaving, Cloud for some reason going back to the ship, and re-entering the Dawn with a massive container in his right hand, and the hatch closing and the ship making its way back to earth, the Spartans stood there. Same as Miranda. One of the Spartans, Rain, asked,

"So, should we go to our posts?" He began, "Y'know, if you have posts set up for us, that is." He sounded Chinese. Miranda nodded, asking them all to follow her, wondering what was in Clouds container.

* * *

"Nice to see you Spartan." Buck greeted Tucker. "This certainly is a Surprise. All we knew was that there were only 5 Spartans left."

"Oh no, we were pretty much training, but er, we erm, finished. Tucker made excuses, "Yeah, lets go with that. We finished, and, got re-assigned to here."

"Right. Well, the other Spartans will be surprised to see more Spartans." Buck assured. "Glad we got here before the fighting began, thought we'd never get here."

"Well it's a good thing you are!" Tucker nearly shouted. "No way am I gonna take on the Covenant without some help!"

"You have us." Caboose said.

"Yeeeah, I think the ODST's are somehow going to be more help." Tucker replied. The reds walked over.

"We're here too!" Simmons butt in.

"Yeeeeeeeeaaahh. ODST's more so."

* * *

Miranda was shocked, what was in the container, was a sword, but, not just an ordinary sword. This sword was bigger than Cloud himself, but only slightly. It looked like machinery, several bits melded into 1. He had taken it from the container with little effort, and placed it in a harness, which he put around himself. Miranda knew of Spartans super strength. but she thought Lord Hood said that Cloud didn't undergo any enhancements. She put it to the back of her head as they approached the bridge. She entered and headed for her desk, the Ensign that always replayed messages when Errisa was busy, signalled to her.

"Ma'am, the Spartans being transferred here from Base D-022 Gamma 9 have arrived. They just docked. Errisa will direct them here."

"Very good Ensign." She said, "Spartans, there's some seats over there, you should sit down while we're waiting."

They nodded.

* * *

O.K fuck it, that'll do for now. I think that chapter could have been better, but CLOOOOOUUD! Sorry, but I like my plot twists, and I like my Final Fantasy 7. Cloud is awesome. AN YUFFIE! She's extremely hot. And a Ninja in training, otherwise we would not see her, for you cannot see a true Ninja, they are so quick and deadl-

...

...

...

-Aggh. She spared me so I could write the story. She's still hot as hell th-

*Ninja Shuriken flies into wall beside me.*

-Okay fine!

Anyways, all characters are in now. And Kris, you really didn't submit a character. Wanna try again? Remember though, no more Spartans. Or ODST's actually. Be an Elite or something, they're pretty cool right?

So, I know I said there'd be action, well, you got humour right?

Answers to Readers:

Inouye: Thanks for the info dude.

Raindrops: I shall continue with my (Epic?) Fucked up timeline! Hehehehehehe!

Sergeant Dreamer: Yes. Yes it is. *Evil laugh*

Emochild123456: Sorry dude, no can do, already got a deal like that going on with Spartan-Ninja, (No homo), Also: Stop asking me to do stuff please. If I want to implement stuff into the story, I'll do it. You can suggest stuff, but you make your character seem like he's the ultimate badass. He also seems to have a short fuse by what you've told me.

Mr Gasbomb: Yes they are! And no.

ChaosTheory1989:

Q1: ORLY? YA RLY!

Q2: ...ORLY?

...

NO NT RLY.

Q3: YA RLY!

Petery132: Yup.

Titanium Gold: T-Two metals? As 1! IMPOSSIBRU! Nah, but thanks.

Anyway that's all. Bye now.

Oh and Review. Or I shall find you, and there will be blood. Oh yes, there will be sooo much blood. AND PUPPY EYES! *Gives you puppies eyes*


	16. More Preperations

Hello.

'Nother Chapter.

I'll be referring to Six as Faith too for some third person moments from now on. AND, I changed the Sikozu charcter to Yuffie from FF7, I didn't want Cloud to be alone. Go back and please, re-read. She's sexy, awesome, ninja-d, and a pairing for Cloudy-kins. ^^

TO ALL READERS THAT HAVE A CHARACTER: If you are a Spartan, I need you to Submit the service tag you'd like. For example: Sierra 227, or Sierra 921. There were over 300 Spartan III's, all dead now. Save the ones in this story, and only 33 Spartan II's. So I lose track of how many there really are and will implement that. But to do that I require a service tag from you.

This chapter was done in a good mood, I was listening to Flyleaf and also Biffy Clyro.

_Love that Golden Rule, that Golden Rule,_

_Need the Golden Rule, that Golden Rule._

_Secrets are the truth, they are the truth,_

_Need that Silver Rule, that Silver Rule._

Fucking awesome. Love the ending music too. Just... so much win._  
_

:D

* * *

"Commander." John greeted Miranda. He was glad to see her, she was a good comrade. All this time, he wondered where Johnson had got to, as if on cue, he strode in and walked past Kat and Faith, who were kissing lightly. He eyed them and thought nothing of it, they were free to... swing that way, if they wanted. He then did a double take.

"Chief! I'm having a breakdown, cause I'm seeing Lesbian Spartans." He said, seeing John, and saying with a hint of amusement. Kat gave a "Really?" look to Johnson, who shrugged it off. Six rested a hand on kats cheek and re-turned her head to face her own, she wasn't going to let Johnson interrupt her moment.

Johnson laughed. "Survivors of Reach?" he asked, Chief nodded.

"There's one more," He stated, stepping aside to reveal Jun, who was sitting down behind him, loading an SRS mag into his sniper rifle. "Jun." Chief told Johnson.

"I see. Well... nice to meet ya' all." He took out a cigar, (Seriously, he never ran out, Chief was thinking.), and chewed on it, "Name's Sergeant Major Avery Johnson, but you can call me Johnson."

The 2 females lovers nodded and went back to their activity, and Jun gave a mock salute and continued his work.

"Tough crowd." Johnson stated, lighting his oversized cancer-stick.

"Master Chief." Miranda addressed. John turned. "Lord Hood came to the ship recently to... drop off some extra troops. You might like to meet them."

Chief nodded, and craned his head to see 4 Spartans walk in. And stand to attention. Other survivours of Reach, Chief wondered. He also noted they had the New MVII armour, just as all his new team had.

One with a huge sword on his back caught Chief's eye the most, as well as the fact that his armour was resemblant of Chiefs own, the second, was a woman with Ninja type weapon on her own back, and rather barbaric looking helmet. It was the EVA Varient, but it had a skull carved into it. Another 2 men stood with them, one, not wearing his Scout Varient helmet, that had puple streak running through his scruffy black hair. And the other, with JFO helmet on. The hero, the couple, and the talkative sniper looked at the the timid blonde, the ninja, the gothic look-a-like, and the fully armoured one. No one spoke. Until-

"I have _got _to be going outta my head." Johnson stated. "I can't be the only one seeing these guys right? 4 other S-"

"Spartans," Chief finished and confirmed for himself. "More survivors of Reach, Commander?" He asked Miranda. She turned to him, from Cloud, who she was so captivated with, she could happily stare at him for hours.

"No. They're... New," Miranda explained, "The Spartan IV Program." Chief nodded. Were they better than all of them combined? He was starting to feel outmoded. "They're just like you-" That helped Chiefs state of mind, "But they're auguments had no danger of really killing or disfiguring them. Plus, they're volunteers."

So they had _had_ a choice.

"Why did you sign up then?" Chief asked, he thought he already knew the answer, but he wanted to know their motives.

The one wearing the JFO helmet, Rain, replied, "Covenant glassed half of China getting to Africa. I'm signed up to avenge who I lost, and serve the UNSC." He said without any hint of regret.

"Figured it was the right thing to do." Cloud all but mumbled. Yuffie nodded to the comment after giving Cloud a cautious look. Chief wondered what their deal was.

The other, James. Stayed silent for a minute. Then said, "Well, to be frank, I don't exactly like the Covenant."

"And the Elites?" John asked.

"I s'pose they're O.K, don't trust them much still." James finished.

"Well, nice to meet ya' all." Johnson said, giving them a small mock salute.

"Likewise." Rain said, who was now eyeing the 2 female Spartans that had only a second ago, gone back to kissing.

"Stare too much and the one with blue armour will bruise your balls." Jun told Rain, not looking up from his sniper.

Rain took his seriousness as a caution, and turned his attention back to the Commander. Miranda spoke again.

"O.K. So, this is, Cloud, Yuffie, James, and Rain." She said, signalling each person at a time. "Prepare yourselves though, I believe the Covenant will be here soon. And Chief, you have command of them. 4 more editions to Noble." And with that, she walked on.

"Well. Nice to meet you all. Hope you serve with honour and dignity. I'll cut the chit-chat." Chief addressed the 4 Newbies. "You've obviously been put through training, and passed. But you're under my command. So, I want every order followed, and we'll get on fine. Am I understood?" He finished, speaking like his old tutors.

"Sir yes sir!" They chorused.

"Good." Chief smiled behind his visor.

* * *

2 Spartans of Blue team were sitting away from the rest of the chaotic posse. They were sitting on top a generator overlooking a slightly grassy hill, it was now powered down since the evacuation. And they had been talking until they had gotten on the subject of their relationship. After a while, one of them remembered the weapon he found. He lent down on his side and grabbed it from its resting position against the generator.

"So Tex..." Church began, "What do you think of my new gun?" He held up a DMR.

"Where'd you get that," Tex replied, "And what is it? Looks like a battle rifle."

"I think it is. Just, a 1-shot one." Church said back.

Tex look advantage of Churches distraction as he looked up at an explosion of a Warthog, caused by the Reds tampering of said vehicle, and a few ODST's shouting at them, and snatched the DMR from his hands.

"Hey!" He blurted out, she chuckled triumphantly.

"Time to test it out." She said, hopping down off the machine, and jogging away from Church, who was chasing her to get it back. He kept yelling to her, but she ignored it, and ran on, after a minute of her laughter and his annoyance, she saw a bottle. Just randomly sitting on a car bonnet. She had ran to a small suburban area, the homes doors still open where people had been in a real hurry to leave. Cars abandoned were about, but this particular had a beer bottle on it. She embraced the opportunity.

She raised her arms with DMR at hand, and squeezed the trigger gently. A shot rang out, and the bottle exploded into a hail of glass. She looked at the rifle in her hands with a content smile. Admiring the weapons ferocity.

"Can I have my gun back?" Asked a tired Church, who had just come up behind her. Doubling over and panting for breath.

"Mine now." Tex stated evilly. She strode of in a Lady-like manner, DMR resting on her shoulder as she went.

"Dammit. When a woman wants something she gets it." Church muttered to himself.

* * *

"So, Cloud," John asked the reluctant blonde, who seems as determined as possible to not get involved with speaking amongst the group of Spartans, "Where do you come from?" he asked, trying to find out something about the young man. The group of 8 were sitting around

"Erm.." Cloud whipsered, "Not really, from around here." He said. Looking at Yuffie. Seriously, what were they hiding?

"O.K," Chief drew out. "Yuffie, what about you." Yuffie dismissed him with a wave of the hand.

"I don't wanna bore you with my life story." She insisted.

"Suit yourself." Chief ended the convo. He wasn't going to pry if they weren't willing to share. "O.K, I'm going to sort out teams. Alpha, and Omega. Kat, you'll be taking command of Omega."

She nodded.

"Omega will consist of yourself," He inclined to Kat, "Jun, Six and Rain." All Spartans mentioned nodded. "And Alpha will consist of myself, Cloud, Yuffie and James." The remainder gave their undertstanding with nods as well.

Now, the ship is fortified, as are all of the Frigates, but if the Covie forces coming through the rupture are greater than our own, we need to straigize, I'm not having us go down like the Autumn. Where we had no time to prepare. Alpha will secure..."

Chief took the next hour to explain tactics, layouts and positions both units would use when facing the Covenant. Occasionly, some of the Newbies would ask about things, especially Yuffie and Cloud, as if they had no clue as to what they _were_ doing. Chief explained in detail that the Covenant docked using the hatches of the life-pods, like they always did. So this time, they would be prepared and fo around the hatches killing all that stepped out.

"Glad to know we know what were getting into." Jun remarked. "When the Covenant glassed Reach, we were just chucked into the middle of it all."

"I know what that feels like." Chief input his 2 bits.

* * *

**A/N:** I will end it there. For now. New Chapter soon, and I shall tell you, I HAVE SOOO MANY IDEAS FOR CROSSOVERS!

Hmm, let me see now... Forgive me a cruel chuckle while I do think of all the possibilities. *Has a Cruel Chuckle.*

Ahem... well, I'll remind you to be on the lookout for my other Halo story, "Two Spartans Love." It's a Femslah between Faith and Six picked up as a Spin-off from this story. I like to think of it as a bridge to bridge the gap between this story, and the next I have planned as a Sequel. But I'm getting way ahead of myself and if my head gets any bigger I won't be able to type because the screen will be pressed against my face... or... Vice-Versa.

Answers to Readers:

SergeantDreamer: Well, now the Newbies meet the other Newbies, and our Oldies meet the New Newbies, and soon the other Newbies will meet the Newbies and the other Newbies meeting the Newbies meeting the Newbies. And then the Newbies Newbies will meet the other Newbies because those Newbies et the other Newbies, and, Oh no I've gone cross eyed...

EmoChild123456: If your head gets any bigger you'll be the worlds 11th wonder(!) And thanks but no thanks, I think Spartan Ninja helps enough. He helps a good few other Authors to from what I see.

Mr. Renn: Thanks! A new reader I see. But please, my ego has been inflated way too much and this story isn't that good. I just write cos it's fun to do. And yeah, shame no one goes for the Elites, although Kris wants to be one he still hasn't given me the right info! DX

Raindrops: Thanks, 1. Yes, 2. No. The Skull on the helmet is a unique one I find, and I gave that to Yuffie... Sorry dude. The black and red I can do, but if you'd like, he could choose another helmet. Besides, the JFO kicks ass! And the EVA skull one looks sooo badass on a chicky Spartan! Oh and btw, You wanted Cloud right? Well, does that mean you're... *Makes gestures with hands.*

Kris: Name of said Elite? Gender? Weapons used? C'mon dude, I can't give you a Character if you won't even try to throw me a bone here!

DragonBreather: R1: Coool, hate when the awesome characters get killed off in stuff! R2: I'm taking it that that's to seeing Cortanas ass in the hospital gown?

UndeadSamurai01: Well tbh, I like your Character, he's silent and stealthy, like Rookie, and the cross was just something random I felt like doing. Cloud, Yuffie and him'll have the whole, "I liek sharp pointy things that hurt people" thing going on.

Anyway, as I have said several times in the past, MOAR coming soon! Stay Tuned! Oh and:

REVIEW! DO IT! DO IT!

...Please. *Gives Puppy Eyes.* YOU CAN'T SAY NO TO PUPPY EYES!


	17. The War Is About To Begin

Ohai.

You ever had that convo with your game? Asking it to actually work? And then someone wonders why you are talking to said game?

Yeah...

Sucks dunnit.

Oh and Spanish is spoke in this Chapter, translations are at the end of the chapter. ^^

**I have received several messages of people wanting characters, now while I have OVER 9000 characters in the story, I need more Elites. So if you are wanting to be an Elite, you'll be serving with the Arbiter when he make his appearance.**

**All I need for the Elites are Armour colours, Names, and preferred weapons.**

**And as for service tags, well, they're no longer required. Because the new Spartans are so hence named "New", they are the Spartan IV project no? So seeing as there are 4 new Spartans, They'll go as Sierra 4-1, Sierra 4-2, etc. Crappy I know, but it'll do.**

**Also, I am once again, a prized twat, for I accidently overwrote the last chapter with exactly this. DX I'll get on re-posting that chapter seeing as I thankfully have it on backup, but I wanna make some changes first off.**

* * *

A sigh.

"I am. So Bored." Tex muttered outloud. Everyone but the ODST's gave a groan of agreement. Well, almost everyone. A certain Blue had gotten held up in an argument with a certain robot that said certain blue was told to check on.

"No, no hablo Inglés, vaya idiota!*" Lopez was telling Caboose, who took it totally the wrong way.

"Oh! I love Pinyatas too! Lopez, we have so much in common! What's your favourite colour?" Caboose ranted on.

"Rojo, debido a que es el color de su sangre que se derrame si no callar!**" Lopez threatened, not that Caboose knew.

"Rojo?" Caboose asked, "I love peanuts too!"

"Ugh, ¿Por qué insistes en hablar de mí si no me puedes entender!***" Lopez complained, "¿Por qué estoy hablando, incluso a usted!****?

"It's okay Lopez, I'm scared of the salted peanuts too."

"Idiota...*****"

* * *

"Can I have it back?" Church nagged Tex for the Ummphteen time. "C'mooon, Gimmie my gun!" He whined, trying to snatch it from Tex's grasp, failing as she jerked her arms to the right and Church clasped nothing. She tapped his visor with the butt of the gun. A small growl emanated in his throat, but he flinched when Tex shot forward threateningly.

"I win." She stated, and walked over to the ODST's, sitting down. "So, you guys see much action the past couple weeks?"

Buck was first to answer, "No, not really. We flew out from New Mombasa, and got flagged down by UNSC forces after they though we were Covenant. But long story short, we got re-assigned to here."

"Oh," Tex moped, "I was hoping for a long story that took up lots of time."

"Sorry to disappoint." Buck laughed.

"Hey Sergeant?" Rick asked Buck, walking up to the two.

"What is it Rick?" Buck replied to the New ODST.

"What's that?" He simply said, pointing at a purple-blue blip in the sky, visible even during now, daytime.

"ODST's." Buck shouted, not taking his eyes of the swirling hole, "Get ready, I think the shits hit the fan."

"'Bout friggin' time!" Romeo cheered. Hoping down of a car he was sitting on, readying his SRS.

* * *

"Come on Newbie! Keep it moving! You wanna be a Corporal? You gotta earn it!" The drill sergeant shouted at the woman, she had been doing this all day seeing as she was ordered to overlook this only this one trainee. But of course, she had to get this sorry excuse for a recruit up to a level of Corporal. And that required a little push every now and again, mostly, in the form of shouting.

"I don't know why you're here, you can't even cross that gap under 5 seconds, what if a squad-mate is in need of aid, and only has a minute to live?" The drill sergeant continued shouting at the woman who'd just gone through many obstacles.

"I'd cross that gap under a minute and get to them Ma'am!" Cortana shouted back over the sound of her own heart beating faster than drummer on crack.

"Damn straight you would! Now finish the course and do it again!" The drill sergeant ordered, "And I don't even need to mention you need to be quicker!"

Cortana let out the slightest of groans, 14 hours straight! And more to do! She'd never been this... _mean_, with the Spartans she'd trained herself, and they had been excellent fighters. But this was what she had opted for, so she was just going to have to mull through it. If this is what it took to fight alongside John, she'd do it. But right now, she wanted to rest, if only for a minute, she wanted some energy to keep going. The 2 days she had been here were brutal, being initiated composed of having all your hair shaved off, being listed with a number like so many Spartans had been, and being shown to the barracks to find a bunk with only one other woman, and over 9000 guys. So apart from the buzz-cut she now had, the number she was called by from just about everyone, and the endless flirts and wolf-whistles of sexually deprived men, _and on top_ of all the vigorous training she was being put through, she was doing great.

Later bore witness to another 6 hours of running around a dirt track with tires, rope, and god knew what else. She had been released from her torment after only improving her course completion time by 7 seconds. And all Cortana was looking forward to right now was a quick shower and some sleep.

* * *

"Whatever comes through the hole, we kill if it's hostile. Got it." Yuffie noted after Chief had finished explaining of the bulk his plans.

"Riiight," The Chief said, eyebrow raised, "Anyway, The Covenant are going to be very numerous, now earlier I was happy to have us in two teams, but I wasn't taking into account the other ships. Now, all ships have an A.I, but the A.I here is dormant, but the others are running and accessible, capture or destruction of shipboard A.I. is unacceptable, and the Covenant might be wanting to get our A.I while they're trying to kill us, so we need to split into smaller teams and go protect the other ships, and their A.I's."

"Are you sure that's the best idea sir?" Kat asked. "It's a good point, but these guys are new-"

"I'm a girl!" Yuffie said, annoyed.

"Can it princess," Kat said, still keeping her eyes on Chief, "And I don't think splitting them up is a good idea."

"The 4 of us are trained well enough." Chief said, Kat, Jun and Six knew he was talking about himself and them. "One of us with one of them. Except that would leave one ship with some backup. So I'll stay here with the Dawn, but who else wants to volunteer to go off by their lonesome?"

James slowly raised his hand.

"Not you." Chief said seriously.

"Hey, I've covered wars you know." James back-talked.

"Don't matter, I need officers for this one."

"I'll do it." Jun quickly offered. Kat turned to him as quick as he'd said it.

"I was planning on volunteering, are you sure you don't wanna reconsider?"

"I'm sure Commander, I can hold down fort here." He smiled behind his visor.

"O.K then." Chief confirmed. "Kat, you'll be with James." She nodded, and James, who wasn't wearing his helmet, gave a smile. "Six, you're with Cloud." Cloud, who's helmet resided under his arm, gave the tiniest of smiles toward Six. She retuned the notion. "Which leaves Rain and Yuffie. Now, I'm actually wondering what to do here, because you're both new to the team, and there's no one to overlook you.." Chief pondered for a minute.

"Chief." Miranda called out, Johns head snapped up to face her. "Leave a new member here with me, you go off to one of the other ships." She said after thinking about it, "I can handle my own ship, as well as a new recruit."

"Ma'am? Are you su-"

"Certain." She decided.

"Fine." John said after a few seconds. "Kat and James, Six , you can go with Yuffie now that I think about it. Jun, you can go with Rain. I'll head off and cover another ship, and Cloud, you stay here with the Commander where you can do the least damage."

Cloud nodded. Truth be told, John didn't think Cloud had it in him to kill Covenant. He was shy, secluded, only confided in Yuffie. Only used a _sword_. But he knew a few Spartans like that, save the sword part, but, he'd seen them train. He wasn't going to take a risk, he'd leave him here with the Commander and she could keep a watchful eye over the... teen? John started to wonder if Cloud had lied about his age. You had to be over 18 to sign up, and Cloud, while looking to be in his 20's, also looked like a boy at times. No matter.

"That'll do for now. You 6 head off to the other ships and protect those A.I's." Chief ordered. "We don't know if the Covenant really do want them but it's good to be on the safe side. And you-"

He pointed at Cloud. Who was now listening intensively.

"...Behave." Was all John cloud really think of, but then he remembered, "And get a weapon, you're not gonna do much with a oversized slab of metal."

"You'd be surprised." Cloud said quietly.

Chief ignored the comment.

Rain took the plasma pistol he had from his hip and held it with both hands. Chief gave him a small stare.

"Spartan, get aquinted with our own weaponry please." Chief said, noting the only weapon Rain carried was the Covie-class pea shooter, save the combat knife. "Get a Battle Rifle, or a MD6 at least."

The Spartan was hesitant, "What about Cloud?"

"He'll get a weapon too." Chief said, and Kat held out an Assault Rifle to the blonde, who eyed it with distaste, but took it nonetheless.

Six unslung the shotgun she had on her back, and held it out to Rain. After a grumble he took the shotgun that Faith offered to him, and almost menacingly loaded in the shells she had also handed to him into the weapons chamber. Chief nodded and turned to Kat, "Take James, and head to a ship."

"Sir." She said, getting up and walking on. She turned and blew a kiss to Six. "Stay safe." She said simply, but with love, and went on.

Six gave her a smile, "You too."

After the moment was over, Chief ordered everyone else to move out. Before Kat left the bridge though, he said, "And watch for Brutes when they arrive, it's not Elites we're up against anymore. Be very cautious." (**Remember I said we'd have the Halo 2 Brutes? The tough-as-fuck ones that took 2 energy sword hits to kill? The awesome ones that could beat the crap out of the Halo 3 and Reach ones 10 times over?**)

"Yes sir." Kat replied, and signalled for James to follow. and he followed in her wake. Everybody else had left and John and Cloud were the only Spartans there.

"If we had more guys I wouldn't leave you without another Spartan." John explained, "But Miranda's as good as a Spartan. She keep you safe."

"I can protect myself sir." Cloud reassured, he felt like he was being patronized here.

"Well, don't die on us." Chief said, turning to leave.

Cloud let out a sigh.

* * *

AND THAT'S ALL YOU GET!

So we finally see Cortana training, and she's not a happy bunny. And the Covenant finally are ready to show 'emselves. This chapter was short-ish I am well aware, but I wanted to get something up, (LOL INNUENDO!), before I go back to college. Christmas saw me being a lazy sod right up till now, so here is a chapter, and I hope you don't kill me.

*Prepares Fan-Fic-r proof bunker*

Btw, spot the Dead Rising 2 quote and win a Special request! (Within reason XD) Hope this chapter was up to scratch, (Seriously) Next Chapter sees comradeship!, (Applause), and the war is about to begin all out! (Greater Applause)

Translations:

*No, I don't speak english, go away you idiot!

**Red, because that is the colour of your blood I will spill if you don't shut up.

***Why do you insist on speaking to me if you can't understand me!

****Why am I even talking to you!

*****Idiot.

Answers to Readers:

Emochild123456: R1: Thanks, and I don't know how that'd work but seems like a kewlbeenz idea. R2: Now you don't have to re-read the notice. XD R3: It was a crappy chapter though.

Shadow Soul Cry: See my notice up top once more.

UndeadSamurai01: DAMN STRAIGHT! Besides, I have future plans for both teams. And RvB is awesome, so we have to have them.

Spartan-Ninja: I love cross-overs though! XD How could you be skeptical, cross-overs bring in the WTF factor, like once, I read a cross-over involving Twilight and Halo, and Chief killed Edward. That was a good day.

ChaosTheory: Thanks for that, Also glad that the story is still keeping you enticed. As for Caboose, well, he made a small appearance.

Spartan327PrivateY: I just love including so many characters! It's so fun to do, and as for the Relationship between Kat and Six, well, that's because of another spin-off I'm doing alongside this story. Cortana made her appearance, I can't believe I actually forgot about our main character for the past few chapters. XD

Raindrops: O.K, It's just you never answered the PM's where I asked about that so I though you were a bit touchy on the subject. But anyway, please re-read the above notice.

FargoneCowboy: Good Idea there! And thanks for the review. ^^

117Jorn: Yeah I realized that. DX

ObsessedwithRvBMC: Sorry Dude, never heard of him.

Reach Fan: Reverse Psychology Win? Dude I reply to any and all reviews that aren't anonymous, no point telling nobody the answer to the question they did not ask. But yeah, I'm upping the anti so to speak on the next chapter of that story, and I'm glad you like this one.

DeathbyReach: See above notice.

Askane: See above notice.

1Allybear1: I DUNNO LOL, OMIGOSH U LIEK THE STORY! OMAHGAWD AWESOMESAUSE!

**Don't forget to Review!**

**I appreicate all review given and answer all questions! ^^**


	18. It Begins

Ohai, new chapter.

Remember, (If you played Halo: Reach), at the end of it, colonisation happened after the Covenant destroyed it? Well like I said, Reach was re-terraformed after being glassed, (As far as I'm aware anywho, even if it wasn't, it will be for the story), so hence why you'll hopefully now, not get confused in this chapter. ^^

I am greatly aware the updating has dropped drastically. And I apologise. College has been a greater burden than you can imagine, and spare time has been spent revising or resting. I'm doing this now because I'm not too tired and I have time. I hope this chapter is somewhat up to scratch to make up for it, if not, then I'll try and make the next chapter longer. And I will update as and when I can.

OH! And I am in the process of re-doing those chapters I accidently overwrote.

*Prepares Fortress to keep out pissed off FanFic-r's*

THEY'LL NEVER TAKE ME ALIVE I TELLS YA! NEVER!

* * *

Kat and James had already docked a pelican that Miranda had ordered to take them to the _Spirit of Reach, _one of the more powerful of the 5 ships before the slipspace rupture. Kat left the Pelicans hold as soon as it had landed in the docking bay of the frigate, jumping out the hatch as it opened, she wasted no time in making her way to the bridge. James had to run after her, she could sprint really fast. The Pelican took off as he left its wake to head back to the Dawn.

"Damn lady, wait up!" He shouted, trying to catch up with the otherwise occupied Spartan.

"Move it Newbie!" She shouted back to him, and he attempted to do just that.

* * *

Jun and Rain were aboard_ Mombasa's Flame,_ having been close to the Dawn already. They were on the bridge, and the ships captain, Geoffrey, was debriefing them.

"O.K, so I'm pretty sure you've received orders?" He asked, both Spartans nodded. "Good." He said, content. "As far as my own orders go, protect the ship. I already received word from Commander Keyes that you're to protect Anya. Our A.I, but the ship to, if you can."

"We can certainly try our best." Jun noted.

"Good, good." The captain smiled, "It would also be best for you-" He signalled Jun, "-to carry Anya if you can."

"Sir?" Jun enquired, he'd never been entrusted to safeguard an A.I before. "Are you sure that's the best idea?"

"Cole protocol. Capture or destruction of shipboard A.I is unacceptable. And if the ship goes down, what'll happen to her?" Captain Geoffrey wondered, "You'd be best to take her now, rather than to fight through the Covenant later. They'll be all over the ship pretty soon."

"Understood sir." Jun accepted. Just then, Anya popped up on her pedastool. She was a deep shade of blue, with the same kind of pattern coursing over her as he'd seen on every other A.I, her hair was long, and went down to about waist height, normally A.I didn't render themselves to wear clothing, but this A.I had shown itself to be wearing a formal robe.

"Greetings." She said, "I'll prepare myself."

Geoffrey walked over to her pedastool, and plucked a holo-card from it once Anya had dispersed into it. He came back over and handed it to Jun.

"Keep her safe, she knows all of the Covenant and the UNSC. It wouldn't do good for her to be captured."

"Sir." was all Jun said, taking the little holo-card, and slotting it in the back of his helmet. Since getting the new MVII armour, all Spartans had an A.I interface in their helmets. He shuddered slightly as the holo-card clicked into place. He felt different. Intruded, almost. He knew he felt another presence there, like someone was watching him, was this how the Chief felt when Cortana had been in his head?

"Hello Spartan." Anya cheerily greeted. "I don't want be Covie chow, so keep your head down."

* * *

Elsewhere, on the _Ascending Dawn_, Six was just getting off the Pelican that took them here. Yuffie jumped off the small green ship into the bigger one eagerly.

"So, I saw a picture or two, but what do the Covenant look like?" Yuffie asked, looking around the Frigates bay.

"Er, well, the Grunts, are small. Really small, and wear masks." Six started to describe as she walked towards a lift. "How do you not know this?"

"Oh, well I never got involved in the war, I only heard of it." Yuffie stated, and it was the truth. When her and Cloud got here, there was talk of another war, so they asked about the previous one, and that savage beasts only known as the Covenant had started it.

"Right, well, the Jackals are slightly bigger than Grunts, but really skinny, you'll always see them with a beam rifle or a energy shield and a plasma pistol." Six further told, pressing a button in the lift, Yuffie quickly jumped in and just nodded, she had no idea what those things they carried were.

"The Brutes are big, covered in brown fur, and are built like brick shit-houses." Six then let out a laugh, "You'll know them when you see them. They carry brute shots, sorta like a grenade launcher, and the lead ones, the Chieftans, carry gravity hammers. You wanna watch out for them, I once slashed one twice with an energy sword. Bastard did not go down."

She moved on. "The Hunters, again, you'll know them when they appear, are bigger than the Brutes, and look sorta like machines, they have a few long curved spikes on their backs, and they all have a fuck off great big cannon for a right arm." Yuffie nodded again, it seemed all these Covenant did was get bigger.

"And lastly," Six explained, "There's the Drones. They're like oversized insects. have several limbs, and always have plasma pistols on account that they're so weak. They make up for being weak because they always go around in swarms."

"Oh," Yuffie said uneasily, "I hate bugs."

"Well then, you should enjoy killing them." Six laughed.

"What about Elites?" Yuffie said, remembering that the people she'd asked about the war told of them like they were monsters.

"The Elites are O.K." Six mused, "And when I say O.K, I mean they're on our side now. They broke off from the Covenant because the Covenant follow a lie. They became they're own faction, and some Hunters, Grunts, and Jackals joined them. But Elites are around 8 feet tall, and they are grey skinned, sort of snake like, but have hooves for feet. They're more powerful than Brutes in certain situations, and they're pretty trustworthy as far as it goes."

Yuffie noted Six's silence after explaining Elites.

"Why so quiet?" Yuffie asked.

"I have bad experiences, with Elites especially."

"Oh." Yuffie said, looking down. The lift continued up in silence. When they reached their floor, they walked out quickly, and Six had already unslung her DMR. Yuffie's tri-barrelled pistol was in her hands as she followed in tow. "Why do we have our weapons out now?" Yuffie asked.

"Never know when you're gonna get attacked." Six said as she fast walked to the bridge, "Best to have a gun and not need it, than to need a gun and not have it."

* * *

Chief himself was aboard the _Bloody Justice. _And the captain wouldn't stop going on about what an honour it was to have him. He shook off the compliments with a few thankyou's and told her it was all in service of the UNSC. The way he figured it, he was a killer. He was just good at his job.

"Will you take our A.I?" She asked, "She needs to be taken incase the-"

"I'm all too familiar with Cole protocol." He said. And nodded. But then he wondered, would Cortana be jealous if she found out? He knew the once-A.I could give in to emotion at times, but he wondered if she would be, him about to be carting another, female, A.I around in his noggin. He sighed, Cortana would just have to bear it. He loved her and that was that. Another A.I was hardly going to put space between him and her, after all, he'd known Cortana for more than 10 years.

He was lost in his thoughts so much so he didn't notice the little A.I that was right beside him on a pedastool. She was looking at him, through his visor she could see his face was blank.

"Spartan?" She asked, "Master Chief?"

The call of his rank brought him back to.

"Yes?" He said, turning to her.

"My name's Crystia." She greeted. "I'm to be carried by yourself, until such a time I am designated safe to be returned."

He nodded in understanding, he was slightly hesitant as the A.I as she dispersed into the deck and the captain plucked the holo-card from it's safety. She handed it to him without a word. And only when Chief reached out for the A.I did she speak. "I don't need to tell you how important she is. I already get the feeling you know."

"Yes Ma'am I do."

"Keep her safe."

* * *

"Good, no that's good. We need as much firepower as we can get," Miranda spoke across frequencies to the massive UNSC fleet that had shown up from Reach, "I was almost confused when Lord Hood said for the time being only 5 frigates would defend the airspace!" Miranda breathed easier when she saw the fleet that would be joining them.

In addition to the Defence stations and frigates that were under her orders, there were now exactly 200 Halcyon and Marathon class UNSC cruisers surrounding the defending sections of Earth, on top of that, there were an additional 30 frigates, all without A.I. That would confuse the Covenant, that or intimidate them, from what all A.I's gathered, the Covenant intel was off, that all UNSC frigates would have an A.I, but this was a chancy option really. It would either make the Covenant trigger happy or selective. But to Miranda, this would be good. It would mean they'd go all in, either way they'd have to bring in all their forces. The UNSC still didn't know if the Covenant were here just for the A.I, it could just be a side objective. But each time they'd invaded, they'd collected A.I, extracted information and then destroyed the little super computers.

Miranda had a small smile to herself. She may have more of a burden to command, but it wouldn't be in vain. They were in good health, a fleet this size could hopefully withstand at least 6 Covenant Assault and Super Carriers. She, still smiling slightly, turned around and plotted grids for the new fleet to go to, forming clusters and perimeters.

Cloud sighed. He was bored. It wasn't that he wanted so much as to fight yet, hell, he still didn't fully know why he joined up for this.

"_It's the right thing to do._" Logical Cloud spoke in his head, "_Get your bearings, help out, at least until you can go back_."

He nodded mentally. He was here for a stupid reason. God if Yuffie hadn't-

"Cloud?" The commander spoke to him. What was her name again? Miranda? He thought it was.

"Yes Ma'am?" He asked in his soft voice.

"Are you O.K, you seem... occupied."

"Fine Ma'am."

He looked out the massive window facing him, here from the bridge, you could see the earth. It was extravegant. Shame that soon there would be a war ravaging its soil and destroying the air above it. He wouldn't run though, that wasn't like him. This unit the UNSC branded "Spartans" was much like SOLDIER. They followed a code, a set of rules, they protected and served, and, they considered each other kin. He considered most of his friends in SOLDIER to be family. Especially Zack.

He shook his head. Not good to have all that dilly dally. Plus, being lost in his thoughts wouldn't do him good, he needed a clear head for the upcoming fight. Unknowingly, his hand had instinctively reached up to grasp the hilt of his sword, _First Tsurugi_. Cloud tightened his grip.

He wondered, what would things be like back at Midgar? What would his friends think? Him and Yuffie just vanishing like that. He would get back. He had to, he owed that much to the gang. Especially to Aeris.

Suddenly Miranda's face was alert. She looked at the screen and out the front of the ship. She looked at Cloud and the to the crew. The fleet had got here just in time.

"Reading multiple Covenant vessels! Repeat, multiple Covenant class vessels!" She shouted over the ships intercoms after pressing a button, "Get this ship up to combat alert Aplha! I want everyone at their stations, no exceptions!"

2 seconds later the ship was a flurry of activity. Miranda hailed and sent a similar message to the other ships, which had also spotted this ruptures signals expanding and were already preparing. The other ships were brought up to Alpha alert within seconds of the first Covenant Assault Carrier breaching the space of said rupture.

"ALL SHIPS OPEN FIRE! MAC CANNONS UP FRONT!" Miranda ordered her fleet, they did just that. Cloud noted marines and ensigns rapidly monitoring systems and accessing data, passing it all back and forth. The Covie ship was hit with quite possibly over 100 MAC rounds as it had barely left the portal, it was not extremely affected, but the rounds definitely tore through something, the front of the Covie vessel was a ruin. But it still kept coming. Several CSS-Battlecruisers left the portal, followed by hundreds of other smaller ships like Banshees. All the ships under Miranda's command opened fire on them in addition immediately.

The explosions of Covenant vessels ripped throughout the distance. But the continued to swarm. The Covenant too, had opened fire, this place, was now a war-zone. Miranda was concerned mostly by the Battlecruisers, they had drop-pods and boarding vessels. They were technically the most dangerous. And she could already see the drop pods deploying. She made orders for several of the ships under her command to attempt eliminations of the falling mini-covenant carriers.

* * *

The ODST's were lounging about, as were the Spartans, save Linda, who was Alert and aiming around for the slightest sign of the enemy. Buck was the less lazy and was looking out from time to time. Dare was always doing so, it was just the rest that weren't concerned.

It wasn't until one of the new ODST's came over that Buck stopped talking,

"Hey Sergeant?" Rick asked Buck, walking up to the two.

"What is it Rick?" Buck replied to the ODST.

"What's that?" He simply said, pointing at a purple-blue blip in the sky, visible even during now, daytime.

"ODST's." Buck shouted, not taking his eyes of the swirling hole, "Get ready, I think the shits hit the fan."

"'Bout friggin' time!" Romeo cheered. Hoping down of a car he was sitting on, readying his SRS.

"Wait what?" Sarge spoke up, seeing that the ODST's were readying themsleves. He unslung his own shotgun and jogged over to them. "We in for a fight?" He asked Buck.

"Yes we are." Buck said, "Now, you all apparently got off training, so you're all under mine and Dares command O.K?"

"Sure." Sarge grunted.

"Good, now, you take your Spartans, and get them to go over to the guns over there," Buck said, pointing to the outposts small towers with mounted machine-guns.

"Got it." Sarge smiled. Buck had just given him command of blue team as well as red.

When everyone was ready, the entire group was circular in formation. The Spartans and ODST's were mingled after fights between the Spartans broke out. Buck noticed it when the red coloured Spartans had a go at the blue ones. It was like they were in teams.

Linda herself was patrolling, not taking her eyes off the sky. She longed for some action, her fingers twitched. She wanted to kill some of these bastard Covenant already. And imagine her glee when a blue team Spartan screamed out.

"Holy shit!" Tucker shouted as something smashed through a car next to the outpost and Church was sent flying.

"What the fuuck?" Church wailed as he flew into another car. That was quite a blastwave.

As if by magic, and enraged Brute Chieftan had jumped out the clearing smoke and smashed his hammer into the place where Church had been a second prior, and who luckily moved in time to not be killed. Plasma blots flew about at the Spartans and ODST's as Grunts ran about finding targets.

"Weapons free! Take 'em down!" Dare shouted, and the ODST's let their silenced sub-machine-guns rip. Linda added her sniper fire to the mix. A few grunts were taken down easily, but the Chieftan, who was wearing armour, was mostly unaffected. The bullets flew into him and his armour alike, but regardless, he suceeded in running and slamming his hammer into Grifs chest, the resounding sound of the gravity hammer flew out and Grif hurtled into the towers wall. He let out a cry.

The Brute only managed to raise the hammer before succumbing to the bullets that were wearing him down. And he fell to his knees as the ODST's and Linda ceased fire and reloaded their clips. The beast let out a breath as he measly swung the hammer at Grif, it wasn't powerful enough to injure Grif further, but it connected with his head all the same as he came around from the floor.

"Owww!" He shouted out as it toppled him again and he fell over. He let out a groan. "It's always me."

Grif found himself helped to his feet by Buck. "You okay there Spartan?" he was amazed that Grif wasn't dead, when Romeo was hit by a hammer it had almost killed him.

"Yeah, I think." Grif whined. "I wanna go home."

Buck let out a weak laugh. "We all do. Your seriously O.K?"

"I have a full suit of shielded armour on, I'll live, I'm sure."

Buck turned to the other Spartans, "Why didn't you attack?" he shouted at them.

"Well.. it was Grif." Sarge compiled. For him, that was a valid excuse not to help him in dangerous situations.

"Yeah, Grifs mean, he never let me use his toaster back at the base!" Caboose gave his input.

Buck shook his head in disbelief. "Unbelievable." Was all he said, turning away, the rest of the ODST's followed suit. Linda looked at them and eventually walked in line.

"You suck Girf, why'd you have to get hit." Tex complained.

"Screw you guys." Grif said, holding his head.

* * *

**A/N:** O.K, so, a longer chapter, and we get to Cortana and her training as well as Chief and his squad next chapter. Yes, I haven't updated in a while, but I'll answer the reviews regardless. I always do. Next chapter has lotsa fighting plans so brace for impact.

Answers to reviewers:

Sergeant Dreamer: Halo 2 Brutes were the best, on top of that, they are back with armour as well as their strength! We have a real reason to call them Brutes! And yes, your Elite character will make him appearance in Arby's suicide squad.

ChaosTheory: I know it's a rifle, not a gun. But the RvB gang aren't really trained in that are they? Not only that but I refer to all weapons that aren't a sword or bow or whathaveyou a gun. Shotguns, rifles, pistols, cannons. I nickname 'em all guns. Cos I can. :D And I don't hate you reviewing, you spotted an error, so nice one. And yes more Caboose!

Arby: I can do that. You can be Arbiters son why not?

UndeadSamurai01: Yeah well Cloud has an oath to SOLDIER that all SOLDIER take when they join that they will live by the sword. If you know of Final Fantasy 7 then it's easy to guess. But if not then well now you know. ^^

EmoChild123456: Yeah, well James does his but later chapters and doesn't get owned so much.

Askane: I can do that, and he shows don't worry.

ShadowSoulCry: Thanks for leaving a good description of your Elite, that'll help. And yes, he'll be included.

ZoidsFanatic: I like it! I was thinking we needed a friend for Caboose. He will be included.

Spartan Ninja: Thanks, she's is sad, but she thinks it'll be worth it! She gets to be with Chief in battle later, but that's to come. And dude, 1997, Final Fantasy 7, how could you not hear of it? It's one of the most definable RPG games in gaming history. I won't hold it against you though. Search and red up about it on google.

Raindrops: Don't fear mate, Chief'll be nicer. And thankyou, hope this chapter was up to scratch.

ACertainSpartan: O RLY?

Elite Zealot: Need a name and personality dude. ^^

Kris: They come soon.

RedVsBlue327: I can do that. He shall join the flock.

Louis667: Oh, well erm, thanks. ^o^

Obsessed with RvBMC: Hey don't worry dude I'm keeping a tab on the characters, they'll make an appearance sooner or later.

tmkpwmjtw: Thanks. ^^

DeathTrooper: I can do that. Character added.

That's all from me, I shall update sooner to re-assure you I haven't forgotten this story, but don't worry.

**And again, I don't really deserve them for not updating in so long, but any reviews given are appreciated.**

**They go a long way. ^^**


	19. All Accounted For

Ohai, 'nother chapter up to prove I'm still here. A longer one.

There has been quite a wait, so a pat on the back to you guys for waiting so long. My apologies, but prelims and revision come first to fanfics, no? Plus, to be honest, it could of been a small case of writers block and not being able to think of anything new. Anyway, I failed my prelim, and I know what I have to revise on, so after this, and the next chapter for 2 spartans love are updated, it's study time! But first, obviously your chapter.

Oh and this music is quite the motivator in getting me to write. Heart of Courage by Two steps from Hell. Ever so coincidently, it's the music used in the Avatar - Special Edition Trailer. (Which also coincidently is my Favourite movie ever.)

One last thing: All Elites are in now, so no more allowed, we now have a huge suicide squad for the arbiter, so get ready to die. (Cake) You're only called a suicide squad because the Sanghelli council were like, "Omigawd guise, srsly? Going to help humans? We're totally givin' you guise a bad squad name!"

ANYWAY! GO GO GO!

* * *

Another explosion racked the side of the Dawn.

Miranda held on as the blastwave rocked the ship about. Seraphs and Banshees were zooming about and were quite trigger happy it would seem, and she was relaying orders back and forth throughout all of it, the Covenant were already aboard, they'd landed on random frigates, but hers just happened to be in the mix. She'd sent Cloud and Johnson to head them off, she knew Cloud was new, but that didn't mean he couldn't fight, and she expected him to anyway, Johnson would make sure of that. She wondered how the rest of the Spartans were faring as yet another tremor flew through the frigate.

* * *

The Brute went down after much persuasion from Johns knife. He'd shot an entire DMR clip into the bastard, it still refused to die until he'd buried his knife in its head. Twice. Looking around, he saw Grunts fleeing in terror up the hall. He wasn't going to allow that. Sheathing his knife, he reloaded a clip into his DMR and shot down each on he saw, they gave squeals of pain and died almost instantly. Chief wasted no time in searching for further enemies.

"Good Job Spartan." Crystia spoke in his ear.

"Don't applaud me yet," John cautioned, "I still need to get you off this ship."

"I don't doubt your abilities." She smiled to herself. "I do not understand though, why we were not removed before the battle. Or why we are even being taken. Our job is to assist a ship no?"

"I don't make the orders Crystia," John huffed, "I just follow them."

Jogging down to one end he pushed up against a corner and looked out, it was clear. Well, _was_ being the correct term. Seconds after he'd stepped out an explosion broke out in front of him and several Covenant poured out. He fired his rifle in union with their steps. Grunts fell, a Jackal misfired as a DMR round pierced its face, the misfiring round killing a Grunt, and he'd succeeded in pissing off the Brute. It'd dropped his weapon and roared, charging at him.

"Ahh shi-" was all John was able to say as he attempted to aim for the Brutes head, but was tackled rather violently. The Brute slammed him into a wall with a deafening crunch, and piled a fist into his stomach. John was slightly winded, but punched the Brute back for good measure, and it paid off seeing as he was stronger, and the Brute was off-put and took a step back, Chief then hit him directly in the chest with an upper-kick, and the Brute veered off from the impact, although, it still wasn't very happy, it charged him again, and John still didn't have time to get out the way.

Unluckily, he now found himself on the floor with a Brute on top of him, driving frenzied punches into his face, he blocked the brunt of them with his arms, and exchanged a few back, then reaching for the knife on his leg. The Brute, who was quite happy to beat the crap out of him, didn't notice, so he managed to get the knife, and flip it into a stabbing position, plunging it into the Brutes neck.

The beast roared at him, but Chief kept stabbing as hard as he could.

"Why. Won't. You. Die!" He found himself shouting at the Brute, who was _still_ punching and beating him. Chief could feel Crystia getting worried now, she was thinking the Brute would overwhelm him. But that wasn't going to happen, in a final effort, he'd buried the blade into it's face, and brought his leg up as best he could, he kicked out, which only thanks to his strength did the Brute get thrown off. Chief got up, forgetting he was dazed from the beating, and pulled out the DMR again. Brute, getting up made to charge and finish the job, Chief reloaded his clip and fired as it did so. A few rounds entered it, but the Brute was done, with a last burst from the rifle, it gave a death rattle from its throat and fell as it ran, landing on it's face.

"I hate Brutes."

He pulled the knife from it's face and continued his mission.

* * *

As she ran out from the bridge into the hallway, the duo practically hugged the walls as they ran, weapons steady, waiting for the moment an enemy should strike. Kat slowed as she neared a corner of the hallway they were going down, and peeked out, it was clear, as well she'd hoped, but it was always good to do this, just in case. She had the ships A.I with her too, they were given it as soon as they'd reached the bridge.

The A.I, Trinity, Kat remembered. Had short spiky hair, and was adorned with a somewhat cocky attitude. The creator must of been quite a guy.

"All clear, move up." Kat ordered.

They both wordlessly went on, and Kat was glad to see James followed his orders without question. Kat remembered before Thom died, the 19 year old Spartan that was before him, Ed. He had to of been the most obnoxious men she'd ever met, rude and arrogant, he never really listened to his orders. Carter had told him to keep his head down but he never listened, which was his downfall. She remembered the rouge militia they'd been sent to apprehend, and the heavy weaponry they'd stolen, UNSC heavy weaponry. Ed didn't follow Carters order of, "Stay low, no sudden movement." And Ed had popped his head up as they'd fired a Spartan Laser.

Kat remembered the amount of blood she'd been covered in when Ed's head was all but vaporised as the red light blaze passed. They knew it was his fault, but that didn't mean they weren't upset. As much of an arrogant ass he may have been, he had been a fellow Spartan. A few words from the A.I roused her from her little flashback.

"You okay there Spartan?"

"Fine."

Stepping out, she paced up the hallway slowly, aiming at both ends of the corridor, the end of this hallway split into two directions. And managed to make her way to the end, James went to one corner, and her, the other. At the same time they went out, both were clear.

"You know, I wonder if the Covenant even like us enough to come say h- AHHH!" James shouted as the space right in front of where he was standing literally vanished in a massive explosion. Kat looked around as the debris cleared and saw the frigate had been ripped in two by the intensity of the blast. James had been on the other hallway, and then she saw him, clinging onto the side of the ripped hallway, and it led to outer space.

"Shit! Kat! Fuckin' Help!" He shouted as the air was rushing out, the gravity sensors in his boots hadn't had enough time to change, and hers had, so she was safe with her feet sticking to the floor. She ran over to the edge and looked around, it was just this part of the frigate that'd been destroyed thank god. The hole tore through both these hallways and the one they had run up.

"James! Hold on!" She shouted to him.

"What the _fuck_ do you think I'm doing?" He yelled back as his legs dangled about.

Kat braced herself, and looked about, ran, and jumped at the hallway James had been. And she crossed the gap without being pulled out into space. Landing on one knee. She grabbed James's arm and he grabbed into hers, and she pulled.

"Get in here!" She shouted with a smile as he left the recluse of space and dropped in a heap upon entering the hallway, landing on her.

"Sorry Commander." He apologized and got up, offering a hand. She took it and got to her feet.

"Good thing the gravity sectioning kicked in." She said, looking at the torn hole.

"What now?" James asked.

"Now? We wait," Kat stated, "I don't think this ship is going down just yet, but we're not abandoning it until the captain gives the order to do so."

"Well, as long as I don't die I'm happy." Trinity spoke up. That must of been the attitude Kat thought.

* * *

Yuffie fired her pistol thrice at the Brute, and Six was amazed that it wore the fucker down quite easily. He still came at them, but Six ran up and jumped off the hallway wall, roundhouse kicking the bastard in the face. He flew back and hit the ground with a thud. The kick had seemingly broken his neck, because he didn't move after that.

"What kind of gun is that?" Six asked.

"What this?" Yuffie held up the tri-barreled pistol. And Six nodded, what else?

"Oh, well, it's a pistol." Yuffie said.

"I know that," Six sighed, "But it nearly just killed that Brute while it'll take at least half a shotgun clip to put one down."

"Well, it is special," Yuffie said, stroking the serpent design of the gun. "It was a gift from a guy I like."

"A guy that gives a girl a gun," Six noted, "Man after my own heart."

Yuffie giggled, "His name's Vincent." She then looked to the gun, "He called this Cerberus. I think because it has 3 barrels."

"Seems like it, it just packs a hell of a punch is all."

Six noticed a Grunt out the corner of her eye, and turned to see a Brute fire it's shot at them, she dodged the missile and brought her MD6 up to eye level, firing off a few rounds into it's head, unluckily enough for them, the bastard had armour.

Yuffie threw her massive four-edged Shuriken at the group, and it passed through two Grunts, tearing them apart as it returned to her hand like a boomerang, she also fired Cerberus in rapid succession, taking out both of the Jackal snipers that'd tried to take aim. They both focused on the Brute now, emptying rounds into him, and thanks to Yuffies pistol, the job went a lot quicker.

"So.. where can I get one of those?" Six asked with a smile.

The two ran up the hallway, they were near the bridge, they turned a corner to find several Grunts and Jackals firing into a door. And they heard screams. Yuffie was the first to shoot, and a Jackal was taken down with ease. The group noticed, and then fired upon them instead.

"Bugger!" Six shouted, taking cover against the corner, blind firing at the Covie group. Yuffie was behind Six and asked,

"Can't we just run out and kill them?"

"No, they'd take out shields down before we killed the lot of them." She explained, firing off a few more rounds. "Those other times we had no choice but to fight in the open, and we came out lucky."

"Oh okay."

Six's blind fire paid off as Yuffie heard two sqeauls of pain from the Grunts she was firing upon, wanting to jump out and fire and Six hugged the inside of the corner when a barrage of bolts scorched the wall. Six gave her a look.

"Little help?" She asked, and Yuffie nodded quickly and lent around Six, the Covenant fired again, but not before she got a shot from Cerebus and killed a Jackal that was sniping.

"Gotcha' ya little bastard!" She shouted and ducked back as yet another reign of plasma drilled into their position.

"We're gonna have to chance it, I now figure there's only 8 of them, mostly Grunts." Six believed, "On 3."

As soon as they'd got to 3, they rushed out squeezing their triggers without remorse, bullets reigned and plasma from the opposing side flew, and ignoring their shield meters dropping, the Spartans advanced, taking down foe with precision and deadly weaponry. Yuffies shield flashed and gave out as the last 2 Grunts remained, They we're both taken down, but not before one of the unggoy succeeded in discharging a shot Yuffies way, be that her shield was down, the bolt ripped into her armour on her leg, and she groaned in pain and went to clutch her leg. Six grabbed her and they ran in together.

They were met with the few remaining personnel aiming their guns at them. At the sight, those guns were lowered.

"Spartans, the cap'n." A woman spoke up, a tear running down her cheek. Both of them walked over to a dying man in the corner with a medic attempting to get him stable. But they could all tell the outcome from the extent of his injuries.

"Take... this.." He gurgled, and from within his jacket he pulled a holo-disk, which slightly glowed cyan.

"Gladly sir." Six said, "We'll get her off the ship."

"Nice... to know." He gave a small smile.

Six turned to the rest of the crew present, "I suggest you all evacuate as soon as possible."

"We can't, not while the cap'n's like this." That same woman said.

"Listen.." He interrupted. "I'm not gonna make it.. and this frigate has taken a hell of a beating. Now you've me proud, yer even sticking by me defending this position an all when you coulda just gone... But I'm giving the order to abandon the ship..."

The crew immediately started to question that order.

"No... no..." The captain said, "Have to... You all go on and get outta here.. But I'm staying.. I'm toast anyway.."

After further complaints the crew finally gave in. They said their goodbyes to the captain, the medic gave him some extra morphine to dull the pain, and one of the crew handed him a battle rifle. They hesitantly followed the Spartans, seeing as they were all bound for the evacuation pods.

"It's been an honour sir." Someone said as they eventually disappeared into the hallway.

* * *

The fighting was getting slightly more intense and the Covenant we're putting up more of a fight than expected. More Battle Cruisers poured from the rupture as UNSC forces attempted to plug it and the flow with MAC rounds and heavy missile fire. A lot of the frigates were down or destroyed, the Covenant we're picking them off slowly going from each one to the next. It seemed they were indeed after the constructs, and they were ignoring the brunt of the armarda to do so. Slightly foolish, but they were still doing what they'd intended. Even so, the UNSC were wearing down the brunt of it. At the helm Miranda could only watch and give orders as the destruction continued, most personnel that had been on the bridge with her had left to go and defend the ship, meaning she and a few others were the only ones up here with systems being automated for the most part, she turned with instinct to fire her MD6 at a Grunt that had charged into the bridge. A Brute came up from where the Grunt had fell, and roared at her. She took a few steps back, reaching under a control panel for that spare shotgun she kept around, and it was just her luck she couldn't find it.

What made matters worse was this was a Chieftan with a hammer.

"This certainly isn't my day." Miranda muttered, and as the beast rushed her, she side-rolled when he smashed his hammer down into said control panel, she fired one or two shots off successfully however, not that they did a great deal. He swung his hammer in an arc, spinning with it, and it collided with a pillar, knocking through it cleanly, and had been where she'd been, some of the people on the bridge were scrambling about for a weapon to combat the Brute but were unsuccessful, dying when more Grunts came out of nowhere and ended their lives. Miranda wasn't going to be able to keep this up for much longer, this was certainly evidence when she felt the hammer connect with her chest from a failed evasion. She screamed out in pain as the force of the impact sent her flying onto a set of controls left of them. The Brute advanced upon her, and she was quite worried now, seeing he was already raising his hammer.

"To die in service from a Brute.. after living an entire war filled with the Flood," Miranda whispered in pain, "Just brilliant(!)"

She was tired after that hit, barely able to feel her chest seeing as the impact coupled with an emittance of distorted gravity would have left her feeling numb. If the pain returned she was almost certain the pain of the broken ribs she knew she had would be unbearable. Slowly, Miranda drifted, and the Brute's hammer was fully lifted to deliver the death blow.

Until a certain sword was forced out the front of his chest.

Must of been the blood hitting her which alerted her, but she was definitely aware this Brute had a massive piece of metal sticking out of him, a head peeked out from behind the Brute with a small smile.

"Thought you could use a hand with living." Cloud said, he pulled the sword free and forcibly pushed on the Brute from the side, causing the beast to fall, hammer dropping from it's hands onto the floor, clattering on the metal.

"Thankyou..." Miranda managed, Cloud sheathed his sword into it's harness and gingerly picked Miranda up of the set of controls.

"You need to get to the infirmary." Cloud stated the obvious, and turned to leave the bridge. "I took care of the Grunts too, but there's no one here to work is there?"

"I'm still here," said a voice, they turned their heads to see a man, holding his arm, make his way towards them. "Ma'am. I can plot in a small course for up to follow while you get patched up, I can hold things down till then I guess."

"Alright ensign."

He nodded and went over to Miranda's controls. "Most of it's damaged, but, I think I can set a course with a few bypasses on the other controls."

"Do it." Miranda replied, she turned to Cloud, "I'd like to go to the infirmary now.."

"Sure thing Commander."

"Cloud?" Miranda asked.

"Yes Commander?"

"Can you grab our A.I on the way to the infirmary?"

"We... have an A.I?" Cloud wondered, she'd never mentioned it before.

"She was put up to be made compatible with the ship.. but she was never installed. She's still in the labs I'd reckon." Miranda said.

"You got it Commander."

Just then, Johnson came running in blasting his shotgun the other way, taking cover behind the archway of the door. "Ma'am, we got ourselves company."

* * *

Cortana was pretty pleased with herself, she'd finally succeeded in running the obstacle course in due time. Even if it was only a second difference between a fail, it was still a pass. That being pleased with herself wore on for a while, being put up to runs throughout the day with heavy gear and such. She was allowed a stop for now and sat down on a rock, taking her canteen from her hip and drinking from it sparingly.

She panted slightly and looked at the sky. It really was beautiful. As was the area she was in, lush foliage all around her, the birds chirping. She wondered how John was doing. Sure, when she left they'd been on the brink of a war. But what if had already begun? She was certain he wouldn't be lost to her, what with his luck.

That was all that ever kept him alive when his skill had been tested to it's limit.

But it's not like she would complain.

"Come on Newbie, break times over." The drill sergeant said to her. She'd been less hard on Cortana since she had been improving, but that still didn't mean she'd allow progress to slow and allow Cortana more than a few minutes rest.

"Yes Ma'am." Cortana spoke. And heaved the pack she wore up, grunting from the weight. And walked into a jog up the hill they were traversing up.

"There's quite a lot of training you've still to do there private," Said the drill sergeant, "But, if you go the way you're going you might be able to do it within a few months."

"Don't you ever get tired of this?" Cortana asked.

"Of?"

"Training people."

"Sometimes, but, it is preferable to being out in the warzone. I used to serve in the UNSC infantry." She explained.

"I see. That's where I plan on going to. Any advice for me?"

"Keep your head down, and leave the heroics to the Spartans." She said with a small smile.

That was a little bit of a conversation starter.

"Did you know there were more Spartans?" Cortana asked her.

"'Course, everyone on the planets been celebrating in their own way. Quite a few have volunteered for the program."

"I see."

The conversation went on as the running progressed, throughout Sycilia, people were happy, they knew of impending war on their soil if Earth were to fall, but that didn't stop them from having a bit of fun. At the end of the day and the training, after many more exercises, Cortana trudged into the woman's quarters and slumped down on her bed. Tired from all she'd done in the day.

"Soon John. I'll be there with you soon."

* * *

Bolts flew over their heads, Cloud didn't flinch as one flew past and singed his ear, Johnson was firing his shotgun into the Grunts and Jackals that were tailgating them. Cloud pulled into a side-arch and set Miranda down. Johnson took cover in the opposite arch.

"I'll be back in a minute."

Cloud stepped out and ran toawrd the mob, unswinging his sword from his back, a few bolts of plasma hit his shields, he ignored them, rushing up to drive First Tsurugi upward into a Jackal, then slice clean through it to a Grunt that tried to flee from the intimidating Spartan, Johnson got a few shots in with his Magnum, but otherwise, Cloud dismembered and sliced up the opposition, stopping as the sword pinned a Jackal to the side of the hallways wall. It died from shock a second later. Pulling the huge blade free he came back to Miranda.

"Good job there." Miranda said, he nodded and picked her up. She cried out in pain however.

"You're not looking too good. Spartan, you head on down to the labs, I'll take her to the infirmary." Johnson ordered.

"Sir."

Cloud handed Miranda to Johnson as easily as he could. Trying not to get her in more pain than she was already in.

"Good luck Spartan."

* * *

It didn't take long to reach the labs, the Dawn being the only frigate to have been given them, simply for analysis of alien technology, seeing as the Dawn must of been one of few ships to venture into space and encounter such things. Soon, all frigates would be given tech and science labs. Cloud had been given directions to the labs, and came down a corridor with a red stripe alongside the walls, not only that but the walls were getting brighter, more white than grey. So that meant labs.

Cloud didn't like labs much, and he had his reasons too, looking around to see some double doors. As he neared then they automatically opened and he walked right in, hand gone to his sword in case any Covenant were already in this part of the ship. As it happened, everything was clear.

"No one but ghosts." Cloud murmured to himself. Pacing in looking around for whatever might be considered A.I like.

He turned sharply at the sound of laughter. Eyes narrowing, he scanned around.

"Who's there?"

More laughter, that laughter owned by a man whom he despised. That metallic sinister voice.

"Cloud." He heard beside his ear.

He immediately pulled his sword free of it's harness and swiped out behind him with a snarl, smashing several vials. Looking around for the culprit.

"Why is Cloud so scared?" The voice taunted him further.

"Leave me alone! You're not here! You're dead!" Cloud said through clenched teeth, closing his eyes.

"Don't be scared little puppet."

"I AM NOT A PUPPET!" Cloud shouted. More laughter. "Damn memories! Stay in my head where you belong!" The blond closed his eyes, and eventually, the memories faded, the voice disappeared. He sighed.

"Spartan?"

He pivoted and pointed his sword at source of the new voice. He faced a hologram. Several lines of code raced down her.

"Spartan, I detect a raise in pitch and distortion in your vocal patterns, what concerns you?"

"N-Nothing, A-Are you the ships A.I?"

"Affirmative."

"Oh, good." Cloud breathed, he didn't want to be here much longer, "You've got to come with me, Th-"

"The Covenant are aboard, yes."

"Right, we need to go. Cole protocol or something."

"While that may be, come around and follow me to my dais. I am only projecting myself here. Then we may go."

Cloud slowly nodded, and walked behind the transparent woman around a few corners and pillars. To walk to a more flashy part of the labs, adorned with several gadgets and metal objects on shelves. The hologram walked into a small pillar-like tower that reached over waist height and dispersed into the top, making it glow a deep shade of violet.

"When the disk exits, take it, and slot it into the opening in your helmet, which you should be wearing."

Cloud nodded and reached around to his harness, opening a bag attached to it, taking out his helmet, he pushed it onto his head. The suit hissed as it pressurised and sealed him fully into the armour. A few sounds came from the dais and a little rectangular disk ejected from it's base. He took it and did as she'd instructed.

He shivered as a chill ran down his spine.

"Hello again." Came the A.I's voice.

"Hi," Cloud said, not knowing the A.I's name he went with, "Ms A.I."

"I'm called Mia."

* * *

**A/N: **Now to be a meanie and end it there!

So, we saw more of Cortana, all A.I are accounted for, and Cloud is fucking batshit insane. Well, not really, but he does go into his memories from time to time. Sephiroth is such a dick, scaring Cloud like that. Anyway, I will attempt to put up the next chapter ASAP. Promise.

Answers to Readers:

ObsessedwithRVBMCC: Dude calm yourself, you're character'll be in, don't fret.

RedVsBlue327: You'll be in too. So many characters!

Louiss67: O tank'oo.

Tmkpwmjtw: Thanks. Did you smash your head on the keyboard to get that name? XD

DeathTrooper: Can do.

UndeadSamurai01: I don't really make many backups. I live on edg- ...!

EmoChild123456: Nope.

Assault-Godzilla: Thanks man. And yes, FF7. Cloud and Yuffie are awesomesause, although I never got why so many dislike Yuffie. Grif has bruises to show as such about the hammers. And all RvB main characters are making their appearances. You honestly haven't seen Caboose in here yet? You might wanna re-read.

Raindrops: There was a Grifball reference? I was just writing them to be as they are in game. I'm so much of a big fan I can quote quotes without hearing them!

Spartan-Ninja: Don't think about it! Just go with it! XD As for FF7, just google it and get the storyline.

Hunter96: Sorry bro. It was an accident.

Anonymous: Well, It does have more- O wait. You're Anonymous, so therefore I am speaking to no one, and everyone.

Bumblebee: Yeah, but I got a better name for you. XD

Spartan 000-B: You only get 1 character dude.

WinterKnight: There's only been 1 cross-over technically, and that's Final Fantasy 7. Everything else is Halo-related.

That's all for now guise!

**Review please, I'd appreciate it. And you get a cookie! :3**


	20. Out Of The Frying Pan

_Hello all. New chapter._

_In the way of updates, I'm thinking on another crossover later in the story, to give insight into the sequel to this. (I'm toying with ideas for a sequel, should I go for a sequel?), on top of that, I've also got everyone's Elite characters in now, they'll be making their appearance in this chapter. (Some people's characters will not be added in due to either there being no given name for your character or you didn't provide the necessary info)_

_I do quite like Brink. (This is a dated review now) It was a rushed game and the A.I is either pure shite or purely overpowered, but other than the few odd flaws it has it's quite a fun game. It's setup of classes, spawning and missions has me reminded of TF2 and Quake Wars. Very good fun though, there's just no feeling complete until you slidetackle an enemy down and blast his face off with a micro SMG and leg it away by freerunning over stuff. I also quite like it because the Resistance look badass and dirty while the Security look awesome in a sensible way. Not only that but the Japanese esc music that plays when you're Restistance and the Mirror's Edge like music that plays when you're Security is a lovely side benefit. (I simply put this review in because lol)_

_Also: Boxxy is Baaaaaaack. ^w^ BAAAAWWWKKSSSSSYYY! Ahh, so glad the queen has returned. __(Old news now, but still good)_

* * *

"Get down Spartan!" Mia said, and Cloud immediately hid from a barrage of plasma that slammed into pillar he hid behind. Upon attempting to leave the labs he was trapped in by Covenant. He only succeeded in decapitating a Brute and stabbing a Jackal before having to move into cover. "Got any ideas on escaping?" Mia asked him as he felt a bolt warm up his helmet as it flew past.

"Nope, but I can improvise." Cloud replied back, and then lifted his sword onto his shoulder.

"Just what do you plan on doing?" Mia asked again, noting a massive spike of activity in his brain, "Surely you're not just going to charge out th-"

Cloud did just that, he ignored a few bolts hitting his armour and ran towards a cluster of Grunts lead by a Brute, he held his sword behind him with both hands, then he lunged and swung it, slashing it across 3 of the Grunts and bringing it up to stop the Brute from punching him, the Brutes hand in question only succeeded in bringing itself down onto the blade, which made the beast growl in pain. Before it could do anything else, Cloud snaked a foot past it's leg and tripped it up, just, then when it fell to the ground he brought the sword around and stabbed down. It growled and attempted to get up again, but Cloud pulled the sword free and stabbed at it's neck instead, finishing it.

The last Grunt that hadn't been killed was running off to another group of Grunts and Jackals, all firing at him. He ducked what bolts he could and hid behind a wall. Right now, he was in a narrow hallway, and they were in another one which lead out of the labs, and he'd have to make his way through them, after all, they weren't about to stop firing and let him through.

Cloud would have killed them, if not for the huge-ass explosion that took place where said group of enemies had been just moments ago. Where they had been, and the hallway itself was now a massive hole staring out into space, and the decompression was sucking everything out into that vast, black void. Cloud lodged his sword into another pillar as he was pulled towards the hole and clinged onto the hilt until the decompression let off a little bit.

Seconds felt like minutes however as the air rushing out seemed to be taking an age.

It didn't matter that Cloud was strong. The force of space was stronger, and the inevitable took place, Cloud yelled out in a panic as his sword was pulled free from the pillar and him along with it. He attempted ramming it into the floor to stop himself being sucked out again, but to no avail. In a matter of seconds Cloud flew from the blast-hole out into the cold reaches of space, spinning as the air rushed into him from the labs outward.

"Oh dear, what now Spartan?" Mia asked pensively inside his mind.

Cloud didn't answer as he grabbed a hold of a long piece of twisted metal sticking out from the side of the hole. He grunted as he just managed to place the sword he held back into it's harness which was still somehow on his back, and swung the arm around to hold onto the metal with his other that was clinging for dear life.

Gingerly he groped forward at the damaged structuring, pulling himself back toward the frigates newly created entry bit by bit.

"I am going to kill whoever made this damn hole.." Cloud muttered to himself.

"The chances you'll pinpoint what, and most likely who, did it, are very minimal."

"Yes yes, I get it." Cloud replied, interrupting Mia. "Let's just... get back in there."

A banshee whizzed past as Cloud was a metre from the hole, firing a bomb at him. It missed but struck very close, right next to the metal he was holding onto. The green glowing plasma eating through the remnants of wall piece he was clinging to.

"Shit!" He cursed as the metal jarred and broke off gradually. Needless to say Cloud sped up moving toward the hole and jumped as best he could to grab at the still glowing hot metal surrounding the entrance, as the metal piece he had held broke off completely.

Cloud gave a sigh of relief as he dragged himself back inside, and looked up, to be facing a rather mean looking Brute Chieftain.

"Oh shi-" Cloud said, side rolling as the Brute punched down where his head had been, Cloud jumped to his feet and kicked the Brute in the chest, knocking the beast back a few steps, which was enough time to reach around and pull free his buster sword, instantly swinging it in an arc around his head and striking at the Brute bringing his other hand up to the hilt to put force behind the attack, but the Brute had raised its gravity hammer and blocked the brunt of the attack, snarling as they hit weapons and were face to face.

Cloud immediately headbutted the beast.

The Brute growled as it was taken off guard and took a step back, then it ran forward and grabbed Cloud with it's right hand, releasing it's hammer. Cloud tried to pull free but failed as the Brute pushed him toward the hole he had already flew from already. Cloud attempted pushing back, but was gaining very little ground, the Brute had now pushed his hammer toward Cloud, making Cloud need to change the position of his sword lest it cut him badly. But that was not a good move as it had given the Brute a major advantage, the beast dropping it's hammer, pushing Clouds sword aside and punching him in the face, or rather, visor. The pain of the fist in his face made him drop his sword, blade clattering as it hit the metal.

"Spartan?" Mia half said, half asked as if to question his status.

Cloud believed himself in danger as the Brute now had a firm grip on him with both hands. And was roaring at him as well as pushing him back, mere inches from the exit out into space. In a moment of pure desperation, Cloud thought to do something very simple. The Brute had left it's nether region unprotected, so Cloud pulled his leg back and kicked up with all his might. The Brute roared in pain and still continued pushing Cloud, Cloud kicked again, and again, until finally the Brute let out a whimper and slightly loosened his hold on Cloud, his face a mask of agony.

The blonde took the opportunity to raise a leg and foot to the Brutes chest and push back, kicking out. The Brute fell back to one knee, and in a flash as it attempted to get up and charge at Cloud, he had grabbed his sword from the floor and stabbed up into the Brutes neck. Blood spurting put the minute it pierced the Brutes fur and flesh, but Cloud didn't stop there, he forced the blade, pushing the Brute to the floor and rammed the sword into the Brute as far as it could allow. Blood pooled around the Brutes head as a death rattle sounded out from it's throat.

Cloud let out a sigh, and re-sheathed his sword back into it's harness after ripping it from the Brute. He then jumped across the hole to the other side of the hallway. He looked back at the dead Covenant and sighed again.

"Nothing's ever simple.."

* * *

Yuffie had shrugged off the leg wound she had received minutes ago from the Grunts, that'll be her augments dulling the pain, she was now wondering what would happen with the A.I they now possessed. After they'd left the captain and headed to the life-boats, Six had taken the A.I and put it in her helmet, the A.I was a shy one apparently as Six had turned to Yuffie and said,

"Her name's Hitomi but she didn't say much else."

"O.K then, at least we have the A.I."

"Indeed. Everyone strapped in?"

Six heard murmurs of "roger" or just got nods. The pilot took that as the green to go and the pod shut.

"Where are we going to land?" Six asked the pilot.

"Around near outpost #53, if we don't encounter any unexpected encounters."

Six hadn't the slightest idea where that outpost was. But she made no comment and took to holding on the handholds hanging from the ceiling as everyone had taken what seats there were. The life-boat then jarred as it shot out from the frigate and started it's descent down to the Earth's surface. Amidst the turbulence Six could see from the pilots wind-shield that the chaos was still ensuing. Banshees and Seraphs were wreaking havoc on the other frigates, but they were holding. Six just hoped that they could hold out long enough for possible re-enforcements or a Covenant retreat.

* * *

Rain ducked a swipe from a hammer and turned to fire an overloaded plasma burst at the Brute, which greatly pissed it off, Rain had ransacked the little weapon from a Jackal a few seconds prior and felt that little bit better because of it. He didn't know why he preferred the plasma pistol to an MD6, maybe it was the way it flashed and hit enemies in an explosion of green plasma and colourful blood, but either way, it was ironic that the weapons the Covenant had created to kill their enemies were being used by their enemies to kill them, not to mention it seemed to do more damage. Hell, plasma grenades were now standard kit in a marines load-out these days.

A few more overpowered shots from the pistol and the Brute started thrashing and frothing at the mouth, Rain smiled triumphantly and turned away thinking the Brute would succumb to the plasma and electrical combination. Jun shouted to him to look out as he turned and saw the Brute wasn't dying, simply becoming enraged and going berserk, and now was charging at him.

"Fuck." Rain said. And switched back to his assault rifle rolling sideways as the Brute attempted to shoulder barge him. He emptied his clip into the beast and it refused death, punching Rain directly in the face, just as well he was wearing his helmet really.

"That hurt you big mutant gorilla!" Rain shouted at it shaking his head and kicking out, pushing the Brute back slightly, a smile crept across Rain's face as the Brute fell over thanks to an SRS round entering it's neck from Jun, who was taking care of a group of Jackals and noticed Rain's little problem.

That SRS round was enough to put it down apparently as blood seeped from it's throat.

"They really don't let off." Rain remarked.

"Yeah they tend not to." Jun replied hastily, aiming at the last Jackal who was taking aim at him. Jun however was faster and fired a shot off first, killing the Jackal on impact.

"Spartans?" Anya asked now their skirmish was over, "Will we be heading to a life-boat soon? Structural integrity of this frigate is lowering to some degree."

"Yeah, we're goin', we're goin'." Rain said, seeing as they were already on their way, the A.I was obviously just worried, but then again, anyone would be.

"We only have a few more lefts and rights and we're there." Jun said, reassuring the little super-computer.

* * *

"Well, that was certainly eventful." Crystia spoke up after Chief had killed another Covenant kill team that were patrolling the hallways of the_ Bloody Justice_. He had handled himself well against the 2 Brutes in that team. Either they were novice or he was just lucky, he believed the latter. His luck was his life-saver 99% of the time. The ship itself hadn't encountered as much resistance as the other frigates and as such Chief had passed several marine squads that were keeping guard. Suddenly over the ships comm's a message was heard.

"Attention Sierra-117, your team has picked up all other A.I and have or are making their way off the the other frigates. Lord Hood had given orders for you to meet up with them planet-side, head to a life-boat ASAP."

Chief nodded to himself and ran through the corridors, meanwhile tapping in on the comm channels. "Noble, what is your status?" Just because they'd made it away with the A.I didn't mean all of them were alive.

Kat was the first to report in. "Everything's green sir, me and Sierra 4-2 are O.K and on a life-boat, over."

Then came Cloud. "Sir, I have the A.I but I'm still here on the Dawn, I'll be heading out of the frigate as soon as the commander is okay to leave the infirmary."

What?

"Sierra 4-4, say again. The commander is in the infirmary?" Chief asked.

"Affirmative, a nasty incident with a Brute, but she's okay. I'll get her off the Dawn."

Chief wasn't confident of the blonds ability, but he was a Spartan, so, that counted for something. Jun was the next to report in."

"Sir, me and Rain have the A.I, we're on a life-boat."

That just left Six.

"Sir, we're green here, we're way to land just now and will be landing near 'Outpost #53', know where that is?"

"Not a clue Six, but we'll find you."

Well, that was re-assuring, they were all out of the woods and safe, for now. "Time for us to leave Crystia."

"That's good. Being in a battle-zone isn't really my thing."

Chief had reached the life-boats now and had made his way inside one. But then took a step back as he saw a Seraph making it's way at the pod. He jumped back into the ship and grabbed the 2 marines standing outside the life-boat, throwing them forward as the pod exploded thanks to the Seraphs missiles.

Chief held the marines still, looking at the hole where the air was rushing out, the marines gulped down fresh oxygen in the air as the hole was covered by a shield when the gravity displacement field kicked in.

"Holy cow, thanks sir!" The marine said to Chief, who nodded.

However, that wasn't the end of it as the frigate was rocked and a huge explosion rang out, Chief fell back and the explosion happened right next to him. An outside view would show the frigate had just been torn in half by a CCS battle-cruisers cannon. Chief had no time to to grab those same 2 marines as they flew past him out into space, choking now there was no oxygen, he felt guilty as he had a sealed suit on that regulated it's own oxygen from the air around him. He could only watch as they died and he flew farther out in the turmoil. He could of sworn he was even just clipped by a Banshee that whizzed past.

One thing was certain, the frigate was toast, and he would be too if he didn't get somewhere safe.

"Spartan!" Crystia shouted out, "Can you make it back to the _Bloody Justice_? We should be safe there from Covenant. I'm sending out a distress beacon, we should be picked up with any luck."

Chief turned and pushed himself toward the front half of the Justice, passing several dead personnel as he did. He was very upset that this had happened, but also angered. He knew there would be casualties in this war, but living amongst it all just added insult to injury. The Justice's half he was heading to must of been a good few hundred metres off. But then he remembered, his armour was new wasn't it? Pressing that button on the side of his helmet, the thrusters in his armour opened out and fired off the second he activated them, he needed to thank Dr. Halsey again for this.

It was then that he was only short distance from that part of the Justice that he saw his radar was more red than usual, noting there was a certain dot that was following him.

"You're marked Spartan!"

"Yeah, I realised!" He replied as plasma bolts slammed into his shields from a passing Banshee.

Chief had lost his assault rifle in the blast, but he still had his pistol, taking that from his hip he fired at the cockpit of the Banshee, not doing much as it boosted and smashed into him.

"Dammit," he said as his shields dispersed. If he didn't kill this driver he'd be dead very shortly. The Banshee made a turn to come at him again and upon readying to charge it exploded and Chiefs vision was obscured by a heavy blur of green as he was pulled backward, unable to move or turn.

"Spartan, we're being pulled by the Covenant!" Crystia spoke.

* * *

The result of the sudden pull and the being smacked by that Banshee had actually left Chief feeling somewhat dazed. He was on his knees, Crystia telling him something about being surrounded by Covenant, and he was also looking up at a looming figure, was was coming to and his hand reached around for his MD6, which he couldn't find, he probably lost it when the Banshee had hit him, either way he was ready to kill whoever was in front of him, gathering his thoughts as the figure became more clear, but then Chief lost the sense to kill the being when he was who it was.

Thel' Vadamee. Or, the Arbiter as he went by in title.

"Greetings my old friend." Thel' greeted Chief, who smiled behind his visor and took the hand The Arbiter offered, getting up slowly and took in a breath.

"I haven't seen you for a good while." Chief said, "There's a battle going on by the way."

"Yes we did realise Spartan. We thought we'd lend our help." The Arbiter explained. Chief looked around and saw Hunters, Grunts, Jackal, and Elites. All of them were different though, for example, the Grunts back armour was green instead of red or yellow. The Jackals and Hunters too wore green. Chief remembered this was because they had separated from the Covenant. "We are now the Neo-Covenant. And we are here to help you."

"Ah, they're registered as enemies." Crystia said, "I've set the IFF indicator to track them as friendlies. I've also sent this out to all other UNSC frequencies. But they should already realise that these Covenant are different."

"Indeed, although we are taking damage as the Covenant have realised we are_ their_ enemies." Thel' said, turning to walk through his ship to the bridge. Chief followed him, and Thel' handed him a carbine as they walked. "I'm aware that it's not your standard issue, but it should do for now."

As Thel' walked into the bridge he was met with Elites standing to and bowing their heads. And Chief got looks his way and greetings of "Demon." It was still his title among the Neo-Covenant it would seem.

"So, where were you going?" The Arbiter asked Chief.

"Down to the planet, I have an A.I and it's my orders to link up with my team."

"Understood. Will you do us the honour of letting us fight alongside you?"

"Sure." Chief replied, you could never have enough help in war.

* * *

"This Phantom will take us down. But it won't just be me coming along." Thel' said to Chief as he climbed onto the small green vessel, Chief getting on after him.

"Who else is coming then?" Chief asked, seeing no one else inside the craft.

"My suicide squad."

"The name doesn't sound promising."

"I assure you it's just a name." The Arbiter chuckled. "Seeing as it was myself and these Elite's idea that we should come to assist Earth, we went to our council and they said it would be crazy to do so. They said I was leading the squad on a suicide mission, and the name just stuck."

"I see."

"They are preparing to leave over there." Thel' said, pointing over to a supply post like building surrounded by weaponry, and Elites.

There were 10 of them in total, stocking up on ammo and the like, the first to turn and come over was an Elite in green assault armour.

"This is Cross Mor'tumee." Thel' said, "And that-" he said, signalling to a second one in black and blue armour that was drawing near, "-Is Sar'gey."

Sar'gey gave a nod to the Arbiter and greeted Chief with the usual of "Demon."

Two more Elites were walking from the cache of weapons to the Phantom. "That's Ask'Ane." said Thel', pointing to the Elite on the left in black and red armour. "And he's Voro'Rtamee." then pointing to the Elite on the right in silver and gold armour. They clambered onto the Phantom as another Elite came running at the Phantom, his armour was sage in colour with blue. He seemed very clumsy too, this was evident by the fact he had succeeded in running into the side of the Phantom instead of the hold.

"That is Sae'Ge." Thel' said, "He has seen a few battles and was injured during his last, and has been very simple minded since then."

Sae'Ge gave what Chief believed to be a smile, and said, "Greetings Demon, do you have a hamster? I really like those Earth creatures."

Chief shook his head, "No, I'm afraid I don't."

Sae'Ge seemed crestfallen, but shook it off, "Nevermind then. Maybe I will find one when we go down." he said to himself as he got on the vessel.

Three Elites walked up in a group, the one in the middle being helped by the other two to carry the amount of weapons he held.

"The one on the left there in black is Zeratul Naga'skia, and the one on the right in red is Sal'vor." Thel smiled as they fumbled past him into the Phantom, "They were helping Kel'Nor, he favours too many weapons for his own good."

Chief turned to see him drop all the weapons the second he set foot in the middle of the Phantom. His armour was teal in colour, standard flight issue. The one of the Elites that had been helping him, Zeratul, let out a sigh. His armour was Special Operations issue, he'd seen Elites back on Reach with that.

Voro' looked up at Kel' and said, "Kel', are you compensating or something?" Kel' snorted.

"Simply being prepared for the fight ahead."

Voro' smiled. "I'm quite sure."

The Arbiter smiled at the banter. Then turned as an Elite in gold and blue armour walked past into the Phantom with his swords drawn. "That is Ty'Ris. He is not in a good mood. Then again, he never is when off to fight a battle." He then turned back to the weapons hold where one more Elite still stood, pondering between a plasma rifle or a needle rifle, and then placed down the plasma rifle, turning toward the Phantom.

Now, Chief believed this Elite different to the other ones, mainly because he was slighty smaller, whereas nearly all Elites stood taller than Spartans at around 8 feet, this one was only around Chief's own height. As the Elite came nearer however, Chief could see the armour was shaped to the Elite, and he could see the Elite was more curved, more shapely. There was also the two bumps in the armour that made Chief think this Elite was of opposite gender, a difference in the Elite as well was in the eyes, they were slightly bigger, and more angled.

Chief had never seen an Elite female before, but this had to be one.

When the Elite was only a metre from them the Arbiter said, "It is good to have you with us, T'sumi."

"Thank-you Arbiter." The Elite said, Chief could confirm it was indeed a 'she' by the voice, as well as everything else, now. "Greeting to you Demon. I can remember when we were at war with you, I wanted to kill you. But you need not worry, since we discovered the journey was a lie and we are now allies, I bear you no ill will."

With that she'd got onto the Phantom without a second glance.

"Well, you caught her in a good mood." Thel' said to Chief with a bit of a smile.

"What's her in a bad mood?" Chief asked.

"Normally?" Thel' said, "She will tend to break things and have 'a face like thunder' as you humans say."

Chief didn't think on it and got onto the Phantom with Thel', "Is everyone here?" he asked to double check.

"Yes. My squad and I will come down with you to assist, and the rest of my ship will stay up here to help hold off the Covenant. R'tas can take care of that."

"He was the one in silver with a missing mandible no?"

"Yes, and he is good at running a ship."

Chief clenched onto the side of the Phantom as it suddenly came to life and rose rather quickly, courtesy of Kel'Nor. "So, how long till we can get to ground? My team are possibly down there already."

"It shouldn't take long."

* * *

Six glanced around the small area her, Yuffie, and the marines from the pod were in. It looked like a small village, except the houses were destroyed and just remnants now, she'd already figured the Covenant had broke through, back when she'd met the Chief at the base they were being kept in tow from UNSC forces, but now they'd crushed whoever had been defending here. The dead and the burnt out Warthogs were evidence of that.

Faith trudged over to where Yuffie was sitting, which was on the broken side-wall of a house, and looked to a group of marines attempting to salvage a few weapons from a still burning machine-gun nest.

"Hey Six, do the Covenant understand the term of negotiation?" Yuffie asked curiously, rubbing some dirt off the end of Cerberus's barrel. She looked towards Six, her light blue eyes glinting.

"Is that a joke?" Six asked with a tone, leaning her head back to face Yuffie. Yuffie did not answer, only her eyes opened wider as if to say no. "Of course they do." Six sighed, "They just refuse to show any mercy towards the human race because they believe that the great journey is real and humans stand in the way of that."

"...And it's really just those ugly llama guys in the floating chairs just telling their followers that?"

"Yup... wait, what.. llama guys? You mean the Prophets?"

"If that's what they're called."

"I suppose they do resemble llama's in a way."

"Llama's are cuter." Yuffie stated.

Six looked back over to the marines to see one drag a rocket launcher from the outpost and check how many rockets it had left. Then seeing him look left of the group and point, all the marines then readying themselves, Six immediately got up and snatched the assault rifle from her back, Yuffie aiming her revolver toward the direction the marines were aiming towards. Six moved forward with Yuffie behind her, looking at the cloud of smoke that was concealing everyone's view.

"MOVE!" Six shouted as a glowing blue ball flew through the air and landed at the groups feet, and the marines didn't need telling twice, they scattered and luckily avoided injury from the plasma grenade. They turned and opened fire upon a swarm of Grunts that came into view, followed by three Brutes and a duo of Jackal snipers which Yuffie had shot down with a the 3 shots of her gun as soon as they'd popped out. One of the Brutes, the chieftan, had ran at the them, the other two had set about terrorising the marines.

Yuffie had fired Cerberus at the Brute charging at them, the second the volley hit, said Brute had started to flash and glow, meaning he had engaged his temporary invincibility, (yay for Halo 3 equipment), Yuffie guessed what it was seeing as all shots fired at him simply rebounded. Six dodged the swing taken at her from the hammer in the Brutes hands, and focused on not getting hit, that piece of kit wouldn't last forever.

The Brute seemed focused on the Spartan with the skull carved into it's helmet, as if it were a challenge to an enemy, he smiled with intent as he would kill this one first, lunging the hammer in an arc to smash into the demons chest, then when it was down he would deliver a death blow. He grunted in anger as the demon rolled away from his attack, so he swung quickly and punched it in the side, jarring the demons stance. The Brute then swung the hammer again, and even though the demon had recovered and dodged, the hammer had still just connected with the annoying heretics shoulder. He let out a roar of triumph as the demon flew back.

* * *

Yuffie screamed out as air and gravity distorted and the hammer impacted on her right shoulder, she fell backwards into the remains of an old house, now on her back, feeling dazed. She could hear the Brute rushing over and decided to roll to the side as he roared. This had been a clever choice seeing as the Brute in question has swung it's hammer down where Yuffie's chest had been, which could have been rather painful had she not of moved when she did. She got up as quickly as her body would allow to see Six jump up onto a wall of the house and fire a few bursts at the Brutes head. He simply growled at the pain and lashed out with hammer in Six's direction, she jumped down with a roll while the hammer destroyed the wall she'd been on as if it were no more than sand.

Now things were more fair due to the Brute not having a over-shield. Yuffie fired off a shot into the Brute which made him stumble, but to Yuffie's annoyance, Cerberus decided to jam at that precise moment.

"Oh you piece of shit!" Yuffie yelled at her revolver in anger, and then went wide eyed as the Brute roared and lunged at her, she ducked the swing and ran away to repair her weapon as Six fired a few more bursts into the Brute, seeing Yuffie was having problems.

"Yeah-heh!" Six shouted out as the Brute was knocked back by a shotgun blast and a hail of bullets from the marines who had overcome the other Brute and the Grunts. Now it was a question of how many bullets the beast before them could withstand. Going by the Brutes expression, it wasn't much.

He fell to his knees and everyone ceased fire as they thought he was going to topple. But Yuffie grinned and walked up with her repaired weapon and pulled the trigger of Cerberus point blank in the Brutes face. A few marines exclaimed in disgust as they were covered in brains and blood. Some of the marines looked at Yuffie in terror. To them they saw a Spartan with a fucking deadly weapon, not to mention the great 'fuck you' she had carved into the face of her helmet.

Six giggled at their expressions. "She's mostly harmless boys."

Yuffie turned to Six, "Mostly."

Six heard a laugh from inside her head, that would be Hitomi. "You O.K up there?"

"Perfectly fine." Hitomi said quietly.

"Good. Let's move up, and watch for movement."

* * *

"Well this is a nice surprise." Jun said, looking through his scope at Kat. "Hey Rain, look who I've found."

Rain jogged over to where Jun was laying down and looked through the scope. "Ah, I'd notice that nice ass a mile off, even if I didn't get to touch it."

"You'd most likely not have a hand if you'd touched it."Jun laughed, "C'mon, let's go catch 'em."

* * *

James sighed, he was tired and he wanted to sleep. Him and Kat had landed around an hour ago and had been walking north toward a few misguided co-ordinates. They'd just stopped to check the area and try contacting someone through comms. There was too much interference however and all they were getting was static.

Kat came over and slapped James on the shoulder.

"Ow! What the hell was that for?" James whined, holding his shoulder where Kat's bionic arm had hit it.

"Look east, we have company." Kat pointed.

"What?" James said, looking where she was pointing, "I don't see... oh."

What James saw was two Spartans running towards them as fast as they could. A smile spread across his face as Rain fell down the hill the two were going down, Rain had rolled to the bottom much quicker than Jun was running and came to a stop, getting up and brushing himself off like nothing had happened. Jun ran into a jog and then stopped next to Rain, laughing at the Spartan.

Both duo's met after crossing over to each other.

"Well, nice to see you in one piece." Jun said to the two.

"Likewise, any word on Chief or anyone else?" Kat asked.

"No, but I did pick up another A.I frequency."

"That would be this A.I then." Kat said, pulling the card from her back of her helmet, holding it in front of everyone in the palm of her hand. Trinity popped up a second later.

"Howdy, name's Trinity." She said to Jun, who was taken aback by the A.I's un-formality. Even though A.I's weren't living they projected themselves with clothing, but what Trinity was wearing would of appeared to have been a cut-off shirt and some jeans, with punk boots to boot. There was also her crazy spiky hair.

"Um, hello." Jun said, then took the card he had from his helmet, holding it next to Kat's palm. "This is Anya."

"I know who she is." Trinity said, Jun noted she sounded very southern-american. "We were good friends back at the delta labs in Songnam."

Anya popped and and smiled at Trinity, "Nice to see you again cowgirl. And nice to make your acquaintance Spartans." She then sat down on her holo-card and yawned.

"It's still surprises me how well A.I imitate humans." Jun said, looking at Anya.

"Who says we're imitatin'?" Trinity said, "I get tired just like you bud."

"Enough chat you lot." Kat ordered, "We need to get a fix on everyone else's location, then get our orders."

* * *

**A/N: **_I'll be a shit-head and end it there for now._

**To Luckmo777**:_ You guessed the quote dude. SO, you get a special request. It can be anything within reason, for example, if you wanted Gears of War here in Halo or something, then Marcus Fenix would make an appearance at one point. So go ahead and leave a review mate. ^^_

_For anyone confused about the female Elite, I wasn't too sure on how it'd work out with the breasts because Elites are supposed to be Reptilian, and reptiles don't have breasts. But I've seen Halo: Legends and seen Han, who is the only female Elite I've ever seen in Halo lore. Now I also read an article saying something about them only making Han have breasts and look more human so she would be more appealing to people. Either way I liked the way they portrayed the female Elites and I'll stick with it. This will also go without saying all female Elites in this story will not possess mandibles, but jaws._

_If you didn't see your Elite characters in this then as I said you didn't give the proper info. But just so you know, with some peoples names I've added a "**'**" to make it look more Elite-ish._

_Anyways, answers!_

**Answers to Readers:**

_A Drunk Canadian_: Every little section will be focused on a certain character or group, but as for your toon, see if you can see him in this chapter. As for my not updating often, I just take breaks between chapters or simply can't update.

_Spartan-Ninja: _I'll get on that, and soon, Cortana will be tested. Soon.

_Emochild123456: _You're making my ego bigger.

_Luckymo777: _Your toon is in.

Assault-Godzilla: Well I've added an extra 10 toons. Is that enough? I plan on adding 2 or 3 more as well. And yes, Sephiroth will continue to pester Cloud, maybe.

_Winter-Knight_: I SHALL!

_Kridex_: I plan to.

_Persia15_: Indeed, and thanks.

_Raindrops_: As for the Chief thing, yeah I'll do that. But as for the gun, I think not. The only reason Yuffie had what she has is because she is a character I've brought into the story. But no other reader has had any special privilege beyond winning a little contest I've put up.

_EmilyKnight117_: It's cool, I've got all that jazz sorted.

_Just a Crazy-Man_: Thanks.

_ObsessedwithRvBMC_: No probs.

_UtahRaptor_: Your toon is in.

_Kris_: Not overly so, but thanks.

_TheForgottenSpartans_: Nope, but thanks, and no, no RvB toons will die I don't think, you need them all for laughs.

_Random Reader_: Glad you like it, although it does start off very shit, I need to re-do it. And your super smexy Elite female toon person is in.

_RinyithFudo132_: That would be Septhiroth.

.

**Now, I will be a most happy bunny if you review.**

**Please do, I chose typing this out instead of sleeping.**


	21. And Into The Fire

_Once more, a chapter for y'all. Will be updating "Two Spartan's Love" soon too. ^^_

_Apologies for the lack of updates, I am very busy with college once more. Very. Busy. On top of that, kinda depressed._

* * *

"So where are we heading anyway?" Jun asked Kat as Rain and James followed, keeping an eye out for trouble.

"Outpost #53." Kat sighed, "And to answer your next question: No. I don't know where it is. All I know is it's in this direction."

"Right."

Kat trudged over a mound and sighted in on her visor, focusing on a small settlement ahead of them about a klick. She could see a few dead Covenant laying on the ground, a few dead marines, and a warthog or two. So there'd been a battle there. But how fresh was the scene? She walked quickly and signalled for everyone to be alert for even at this distance there could be a sniper. They all aimed their rifles around, finding no enemies as they drew near the site.

"This grunt looks like shit." Rain commented on a Unggoy corpse.

"We're not here to admire the scenery." Kat said, not taking her eyes of the area as the moved her rifle about. "We're looking to re-group."

"I know that."

"Well then keep your ass on alert instead of trying to make small talk with dead things."

"But we're making small t-"

"Don't." Kat warned.

"Excuse y'all." Trinity spoke, "Don't wanna be alarmin' ya, but we've got a Scarab picked up on my long range scanners. An' it's headed this way. So ya might wanna get ready to kick it's ass."

"Fuck!" Kat exclaimed. Then she sighed. "Right. We don't have any heavy weaponry, search around, see what you can find."

They wasted little time in looking around the Covenant's dead for anything useful. Kat kicked in a door of a house and looked inside after seeing it had been a stronghold for the marines. She found a BR55 at least, swapping it for her assault rifle. She found a bubble shield too, now that was rare. Moving a marine to the side of a chest he was over, she smiled as the saw a few rockets, now she just needed to find a launcher for them, also taking a few M6G rounds, she was almost out oof ammo on her pistol so she was thankful for those.

She walked out the house quickly with the ammo and made her way over to Jun, who was holding a fuel rod cannon.

"You seen a rocket launcher anywhere?" She asked.

"If I did, I wouldn't of picked this up."

"Thanks for that."

"Hey guys!" James shouted, "This warthogs turret works, and it's a Gauss!"

"Brilliant." Kat smiled. It may not drive, but it'll shoot.

Kat stopped as a huge crash hit the ground and the it earth trembled. Another crash, and another. Until a metallic head was visible from the hills above them. It moved over them and was coming straight for their position.

"Scarab's here!" She shouted, however the Scarab had already sighted them. And it's upper cannon was already firing. Kat ran just as the main beam fired as well, burning right past her, scorching the earth and whatever was in it's way. James swivelled the turret around and fired at a leg, to which the Covenant inside didn't like, and it's upper cannon took aim at the warthog.

"James! MOVE!" Kat shouted, James fired off one last shot at it's leg as he jumped off, only succeeding in getting a few steps before the bursts of plasma burned through his last position and made the warthog explode, which sent him flying a small distance. He landed roughly on his front and scrambled up to and over a damaged wall, pulling out his assault rifle. Not that it made any difference at this second. Kat ran over to him from her position as the Scarab moved over slightly.

"You good?" Kat wondered, seeing his armour had been blackened slightly by residue.

"Yeah I'm fine."

Rain ran out the house he was in holding a rocket launcher, asking, "Guys, what's all the noise for?"

"A Scarab numbnuts! Didn't you hear me? Now gimmie that!" Kat said, running over and pulling the weapon away from him, going back over to where she'd left the rockets.

"A Scarab? Shit!" He said nervously, "We gotta run!"

"No." Jun said, "We kill it." He aimed his fuel rod cannon at the machine, hoping he would hit the already damaged leg. Pulling the trigger in rapid succession, green projectiles raced towards their target, hitting in an area, but luckily that included the leg. "Shame, that was all the ammo in the clip."

"Calm the fuck down!" Kat shouted, lifting the rocket launcher onto her shoulder with two rounds loaded. Firing them in seconds. One round missed and blew up next to the Scarab, but the other one hit a different leg, knocking the Scarab to the side a little. The Scarab was beginning to falter however, Kat had an idea, but she'd need some help.

"Jun, Rain, I'm gonna get on it! Try and distract it!"

"What?" Jun shouted as the Scarab unleashed another torrent in James direction.

"You heard me!"

It was a crazy idea, Kat knew that much, but she'd taken down Mining Scarab's before, climbing up one couldn't of been extremely difficult. Of course, there was the crew inside, although that wouldn't be a problem for her, she didn't think so anyway. The Scarab itself was focusing on James who was running around avoiding it's plasma blasts. Had he been a normal marine, he would of been fried by now.

Taking the already provided distraction, Kat raced to the Scarab's damaged leg, seeing Jun run towards James out the corner of her eye. 2 Spartans were more likely to gain a Scarab's attention that just one. Luckily for James being, Jun had leaped towards him and taken him aside as another torrent flew past him from the main cannon.

"Thanks!"

"Don't mention it just run!"

Kat was quick in making it to a distance where she could latch onto the leg. the problem being the Scarab still wasn't down, and she saw no way of getting on to it without doing so. She thought about using plasma grenades, the blast on those were pretty intense, but they wouldn't stick to the armour. But she did notice that where they'd hit on the legs earlier, there were now exposed joints, although she wasn't sure a grenade could stick to those, or even if she could land the stick. Well, she could try.

Taking one plasma grenade from her belt, she focused on the leg nearest her, she just needed this Scarab to hold still long enough for her to throw it. But she was thinking on where it would move, it definitely wasn't staying still.

Rain was focusing on finding some ordinance right that very second, rooting around some boxes inside a house. Jun and James were needing help! And the only thing he'd found thus far was a single rocket. He found a focus rifle for some odd reason, but that wouldn't work against Scarab armour. He sighed, frustrated. Picking up the single rocket he went outside, looking for the launcher, spotting it lying on the ground a bit away from him, where Kat had left it. He turned as he heard a discharge of plasma and a yell, and then a cry of, "Fuck me! That was close!", he couldn't help but smile, but he needed to hurry, grabbing the weapon and stuffing the much needed ammunition into it.

He sprinted across an open field where the Scarab had crossed and saw Kat readying her arm with a grenade in hand, he could see what she was trying to do. He jogged a few more steps and got down on one knee, putting the launcher on his shoulder to take aim. He didn't waste time in firing the second it beeped for a lock. The round honed in on it's chosen leg, spiralling through the air to crash into the Scarabs limb and explode.

Smiling with a grin he saw Kat look to his direction and give a mock salute of thanks before climbing up the rocks she was next to. The Scarab was faltering slightly and was lowered, still moving however, that didn't phase Kat, it was still down to her. She grasped at the rocks, pulling herself onto the top of them, getting up and taking in a breath, stepping back a bit to sprint. She left the edge of where she was with a yell.

* * *

"C'mon, easy." Cloud said, placing Miranda in the life-boat open to them, Johnson was outside looking around, shotgun in hand and cigar in mouth. Miranda looked to the pilot of the life-boat and she nodded. Johnson got in with one last look at the Dawn's interior.

"Well, that was easy." Johnson commented on the few skirmishes they'd got through to get here. "Let's just hope the Chief and his team can greet us when we land." He blew out some smoke from his mouth and took a seat, placing the shotgun next to him to strap in. Cloud strapped Miranda in and sat down himself, looking put the cockpit windscreen as they took off out the Dawn. He put his hands on his helmet and unsealed it, pushing it from his head to rest it on his lap, shaking his head, making his blond spiky hair ruffle about.

"Spartan?" came a voice from the helmet in his lap.

"Yes?"

"You did well back there, I thank you for rescuing me."

"That's fine."

"Go." Miranda told the pilot, who nodded and closed the door on the pod, they launched a second later. The moment they were away from the ship, Miranda sighed. "That's the second time my baby's gone down."

"It's not down." Cloud pointed out.

"But it will be. Give it a minute."

* * *

The air distorted as a gravity hammer roughly made it's way past John into the ground next to him, he grunted in response and punched the holder of the hammer in the face. He liked punching Brutes in the face because it meant he didn't have to look at them. The Brute however wasn't exactly happy with what was happening and charged John. As they fell to the earth they fought upon, the Brute reigned a number of blows to John who took them on his shield with ease. He managed to unsheathe his knife and plant it in the Brutes shoulder, who wasn't fussed by the blade. John couldn't say the same for the energy sword that made its way into the Brutes neck though. He thanked Thel' for his timely rescue and got to his feet.

The Elites were wreaking havoc on a platoon of Covenant they'd dropped into. There had originally been five squads of eight Covenant a squad. All consisting of a Brute, two Jackals, and five Grunts. That Platoon was more of a team now, having only two squads around, remaining. Kel'nor's heavy weaponry had proved quite the counter against the outnumbering numbers, the skill of the Elites was very useful too. Most the Elites had chosen to take out the little guys first, many of the Grunts in the first squads had fallen before they'd even got a shot in edgewise. They were in a city and had searched around to eliminate all the forces in the area. Their objective after clearing the city, which had been decided by Thel' was to go to the oddly named, "Outpost #53" where Six and Yuffie were at.

"Watch out!" Shouted T'sumi, "Brute Kill Team!"

John turned his head, and she was indeed correct, a group of eight Brutes were running at them. three with gravity hammers, and the remaining five with spikers and plasma rifles. John sprinted towards the group with Thel', a few other Elites joining them, ignoring the bolts flying past them and into their shields, John ducked a lunge from a first Brute with hammer, and spun to smack the butt of his rifle into a second Brutes stomach, punching it in the face as it doubled over, ducking a hammer swing from a third Brute while firing off several rounds of his rifle into the 2nd's face. Thel' had killed the first one to try and hit John, and rammed his sword through the chest of the 3rd that had come to attack him instead. It didn't kill the Brute, but it certainly hurt him. Nonetheless he raised his hammer again, only to hear a roar of fury, a swipe, and a bleeding stump where a hand had been. The hand in question was falling to the ground with hammer clutched very tightly. The assailant had been Voro'Rtamee, and Thel' gave him a nod in thanks as he drove his sword into the Brute again, this time, through his head.

Sae'Ge was looking at a Grunt that was staring at him in fear. He gave the Grunt a smile, but that only scared it more. "So, what's your name?" He asked the scared little alien, who was confused by the question. The grunt lowered his arms and looked around; a battle was raging around them, Elites and a demon were obliterating Brutes left, right, and centre, and this Elite was asking him his name? The Grunt now believed this Elite must have been rather silly, so he took the plasma pistol from his hip and aimed it at Sae'Ge, who looked at the weapon with curiosity. A cry let out as a bullet from John's rifle made its way through the Grunts chest. Sae'Ge looked down at the fallen creature and smiled again, then walked onward as if nothing had happened.

From where Zeratul was standing, he could see the numbers of his enemies dwindling, they were tatters of a platoon now, they were just a disorganised mess of troops. In his hands he held a Grunt and an energy sword, he choked it until it's death and threw it at a passing Grunt, to which he detached and primed a plasma grenade for, then throwing it at the bewildered alien. He snarled and beheaded a Brute that dared to come near and took a step back as the body fell by his knees. The fight was going well for his brothers, and sister, demon included. But that was to be expected, he looked back at the small Grunt to see a blue explosion take place. No more Grunt. Sometimes he believed he enjoyed the thick of battle a bit much.

* * *

**A/N:** Once again, great apologies to y'all for not updating in a good month or so. I've been up to my neck in college work, (Quite literally), and as such I was too bogged down to write this chapter in one go. I started it a good 6 weeks ago, and this it is just done now. Crazy huh? My depression doesn't help with that either, but still, life goes on hm? I'm confident y'all have other stories you've been following. Hopefully this will

Still, any reviews given will be appreciated, I don't think I deserve them necessarily.

Thanks for readiing. Till next time.

_Answers to readers, (Such a long list thanks to my lack on the updates.)_

_A Drunk Canadian: Mainly focused on Kat's new group and the Suicide Squad in this one._

_ChaosTheory1989: Thanks for the info, but I already knew it. Thanks for the comment, hope you do like the story._

_Spartan-Ninja: Well, as long as you say it's from my story then I'm a happy bunny._

_Winter Knight: Thanks, me too!_

_Raindrops: Ooooookaaaay. ~Backs away slowly~_

_Assault Godzilla: Pretty much yeah, I like the skull helmet on a female because it doesn't look like shit, it looks badass. Anyway, yeah, Cortana will pop up soon with any luck, and the Elites are doing battle!_

_TheForgottenSpartans: 1. I'unno, I just like A.I, I guess? 2. Well Yuffe's gun isn't from the 26th century, it's from Final Fantasy and their guns are only slightly futuristic, but other than that they're just normal guns. 3. The next chapter is now, and yes, sequel will be made._

_RedvsBlue327: Not a problem dude, I hope you don't mind me shortening his name a bit. And thanks, I do attempt to keep track of everyone, than again it's not actually that easy with so many, but I manage. Update is here at last though eh?_

_Drax: Thankyou, I do try._

_TROLL: YES. ALL HAIL TO THE QUEEN. ~Serious face that kills Chloe~_

_Maxforce: Sure, I could do other Covenant._

_Turdy1: Interesting name you got there. Cortana will say hello again soon enough._

_Anonymous: I won't be._

_MrBlackWolf10: Eyup, they're in alright._

_Noble 6: No problem soldier. Keep on fighting!_

_4ku-Ten5hi: Do you know having a go at me just makes me put off chapter updates? Not to spite you or anything but because I then feel like, "Oh, why don't I want to update now...?" Chill bro, or I may have to block you._

_ObsessedwithRvBMC: Not sure. Soon I hope._

_DeathTrooper: OH NOES! KAY KAY I WILL! ~Sobs and portrays anime eyes of upset-ness~ Well, I'll try anyway._

_Dragon Spartan: Thanks._

_Chuck1701: I have done._

_Arsenal18: You know you're the second to request a marine when the story is just about full of OC's. But, Cortana's squad will need marines, so sure you can come in to the fray why not. I do attempt to update often, and yes it is definitely a bad thing._


	22. An Ominous Thought

**Hello! Hooly shit I am so very sorry about the gap! And that wrong upload! College work and writers block do not make for good friends. It also doesn't help that I'm a little bit stupid, I forgot documents are deleted after 60 days so I lost what I had, and all my new story chapters were baleeted too! I had to re-type the whole thing! ARRGH. Anyway, I do hope this chapter helps with the whole, "Not dead by the way." And I will try to update a little more often than not. It is now the end of my course! So time to update between job searching is possible.**

* * *

Searing hot plasma slammed into the floor and over her head, Kat stuck her gun out to blindfire kill the few Grunts tormenting her. It had not been the best of ideas to jump on a Scarab full of enemies, alone. Maybe if she'd got Jun to come along with her. Why did she do this again?

"Because yer a bit reckless an' stupid?" Trinity suggested with a laugh, answering her thoughts.

"Shut up you." Kat responded, annoyed at the A.I's comment, and took out that annoyance on a Jackals skull with her foot, the damn thing got too near and she'd grabbed it, forcing the thing to the ground, stomping on its face for a good few seconds. She shot the last Grunt with a snarl and ran over to the back of the Scarab, stopping to sight the pulsing blue shield covering the core. She took out a plasma grenade and eyed the Lekgolo worms underneath the protective barrier, disgusted by them, bloody things were even more weird out of the armour that made them a walking tank. She was about to throw the grenade too, right until a Brute came walking around the corner, mauler in hand.

She quickly dodged his swing of the gun, and elbowed him in the stomach, he didn't double over, in fact, it did little but make a thud, he laughed gruffly and punched her in the face, making her reel backward. Kat righted her footing and felt anger bubbling, lashing out in kind with her fist. A meaty smack resounded, blood spilt, and the Brute roared as his nose broke. This pleased Kat, and she pulled her pistol from its holder on her hip, firing it sharply into its knee several times, making the Brute howl in anger and pain. She grabbed its shoulder with her bionic arm and pulled it up against the shield, priming the grenade and sticking it forcefully onto the Brutes face. Kat ran around to the side of the Scarab, hearing howls of frustration, knowing the Brute would not escape his fate.

One blue explosion later, the Scarab began to fault.

"That grenade worked, so ya don't need to be on here no more." Trinity said, detecting the Scarab was indefinitely going to overload and blow up. Kat sighed and had pretty much guessed that, she wasn't going to wait for it to go full nuke with her on it. She ran down as the Scarab lowered and jumped down onto the hard earth below, landing on one knee. Wasting no time she broke into a full sprint and braced as she heard a raise in pitch, the resulting explosion rocked the ground, force pushed outward and sent Kat flying, having been due to her not clearing the blast radius in time.

Jun and the other two rushed over to where Kat lay, Anya reassured the trio that her vitals were fine and she was just slightly dazed.

"Kat! Kat, you O.K." Asked a concerned Jun as she got to her feet shakily.

"Yeah. I'm good, I'm alright." Kat breathed. "Just a little winded."

"While you were faffing about on the Scarab I got a radio in, there's a Pelican on its way to us." Rain smiled, helmet under his arm.

"Well, finally some good news." Kat sighed.

* * *

"So, we're going to this outpost #50-something right?" Grif asked as he looked around the city they were walking through, the tall mega-city had been done in by the Covenant a day or so ago, along the way they spotted remnants of UNSC stations to combat the threat; destroyed turrets, a helmet and rifle or two, and hundreds of little bullet casings littering the floor. Grif picked up a pistol that was lying abandoned near a destroyed warthog and compared it to his own, "And this is a nice gun. Oh well, mine now."

Dare walked over and snatched it out of his hand with a scowl, Grif took a step back in surprise. "Listen buddy, respect for the dead. This probably belonged to a marine, its old standard UNSC issue." Looking at the black matte weapon, then to the silenced one on her hip, "Same as mine; us ODST's use this variant for its fire rate. Used to be used by all marines, but since the invasion everyone seems to want to move up to the heavy duty version of the magnum. As for the outpost, we'll get there soon, quit your bitching."

"Alright, alright, sheesh, no need to be such a stick in the mud." He muttered, following on behind Simmons, Dare placed the pistol back next to the warthog and rushed off to the front of everyone, eyeing the countless windows of the towering skyscrapers. Motioning for Buck, Mickey, Samurai. and Rick to move right and Romeo, Dutch, Great, and Dizzy to move left, Linda ran around a long line of cars, scanning ahead through the scope of her rifle.

"A few Jackals and Grunts ahead. Want me to get up high?" She asked, to which Dare nodded, and crouched down, waving her hand to stop the Spartans.

"What are you waving at us for?" Tucker asked, Tex slapping him up the head and pulling him down to the ground. "Ow! What'cha do that for?"

"Shut up!" Dare hissed, "Those could be part of a group, or they could be alone. We wait to hear from Linda." She glanced to Buck who gave her a nod. She sighed and hoped these idiotic Spartans didn't cause everyone else to die. Linda was a good Spartan, she'd seen her in action back on Reach before she got downed, and that Tex seemed to have a strong head. But the other ones she wasn't so sure of, especially that one with the old issue V helmet, he was just nuts. She was astounded as she overheard him talking.

"I don't think the bossy lady should be so bossy, maybe she just needs a hug." Caboose stated, Sarge took this time to actually be nice to a blue, seeing as this one was like a child... a very troubled and stupid one. He rested a hand on the enemy Spartans shoulder and sighed.

"Caboose, if you do that, I think she'll shoot you."

"Wow, she's a mean lady."

"I think she just likes her space."

"She's got lots of space already."

"Yeah, well... um, never mind, just, stay out of her reach."

"That's good advice." Dare growled, head sharply turning back to where the Jackals were positioned seeing as a loud shot rang out. All Dare saw was a Jackals head explode in a misty shower of purple blood, then hearing static from her radio as a message was buzzing in.

"There are a few squadrons of Grunts with a Brute in each, nothing we can't handle." Linda patched through. "Nothing I can't handle either." She whispered confidently, another resonating shot ringing out, and another Jackals head went out like an explosive.

"ODST's! Move up! You four, flank left, you four, with me! Let's go!" Dare signalled for Buck and his mini-squad to follow her, he nodded to her, waving his finger in the 'On me' motion. The four ran up behind Dare as she ran straight toward the fray, where Linda was destroying the opposition regardless of the plasma bolts that flew at her location.

A Grunt squeaked upon sighting the four ODST's and ran for dear life, although Dare had a different opinion on that, silencing the Grunts high pitched yelps with a shot to the head via pistol. She slid behind a crate and peeked out, sighting a weird structure that had to be around 9 feet tall, with a lot of plasma radiating from the top of it, a Brute chieftain crouching behind it. "Buck", she said between shots at the infantry. "Clear a path through and get Mickey to set a charge on that Covie building."

"Um, sure Cap'n, but don't ya think it'd be best to take scans or something? Send it to Lord Hood or whatever?" Buck wondered, firing off small bursts at Grunts between hiding in cover and dodging plasma fire.

"No, that's a pylon. Those are what the Covenant used on Reach for reconnaissance where they couldn't get thousands of their troops to be."

"Wait, wait, wait, you mean to tell me that this might be recon for a bigger fleet?"

"No. Or, I sure as hell hope not."

"Dare?", Great asked, "I gotta know, how do you plan on taking out four hunters?"

"What?" Dare exclaimed, looking out toward the Brute and his remaining Grunts. She didn't see any hunt- Oh shit. _Those_ Hunters. She gasped in surprise as Romeo was opening fire on a Hunter that had come a little too close, and shouted out as two of them broke off to attack him, Dutch ran out to pull him back, but the fuel rod cannon had already fired, Romeo attempted to dodge the green haze but ultimately failed, he was engulfed in the heat. Buck and Dare simultaneously cried out in shock.

* * *

**A/N: Again, very sorry for the huge gap. Small chapter to show I'm not dead and to get things up and going again. Reviews will still be answered, but most of them were so long ago I figure everyone would have forgotton their own questions. Most things were just talk on the updates anywho.**

**Reviews to readers:**

That's Professor Hawke: _That was an old chapter, I need to go over the majority of old chapters and re-do them with correct punctuation and spelling._

NobleFAIL: _Sure, she'll be in there._

**If you feel like it, please do leave a review.**_  
_

**Bear sluts, and certainly no cancer, await you for doing so.**


	23. All Powerful Bitch

**Greeting once again. New chapter.**

**I've been neglecting Cortana haven't I? I already figured but I got a review that pretty much did open that one right up. Well to be fair, that's because I needed to get a few other ideas into the story first, she'll be along in this chapter, have no fear.**

**Onward!**

* * *

"Awh fuck, Romeo!" Buck shouted, dodging a green barrage of death from one of four Hunters encroaching around the ODST's. Buck was worried now. Well, he was worried before, but now he was also worried because a squadmate was likely dead. And that wasn't sitting right with him, Romeo being snuffed out in a tick. He grabbed two plasma grenades from his belt and primed them at the same time a single Hunter rushed toward him, and when it swung, with him barely making it past the huge metallic arm of the beast and practically feeling the air displace against him, he shoved them both roughly against the back of the Hunters armour and orange wormy appendages that made up its body.

Needless to say the resulting mess was Buck, Dare, and three of the other ODST's being covered in orange blood, lucky that the Hunter hadn't rushed at them too. Luckier it was already heading back towards its bonded brother as the horrible orange appendages shrieked out and alerted the being to the small little spheres of destruction. Little too late though, its bond brother was caught in the blast, just about killing it, but the near death was corrected to deceased; Samurai had taken it upon himself to empty a clip into its back, the ODST in question being covered in the most amount of blood. It was probably the reason why he'd reloaded and emptied a second clip into the dead beast.

Dutch had seen Samurai's aggressive act and thought through ducking a blast of molten green plasma from a remaining Hunter, that it was probably due to him being as quiet as The Rookie, if he were like any of the other ODST's, he'd be swearing and kicking the creature until sundown for ruining the uniform. The Hunter nearest Buck had charged up its fuel rod and was proceeding to empty its blast radius into his vicinity in the very near future, Now Buck wasn't in the best position to move out of it's way at this precise moment in time as a Jackal was playing 'Let's take this guys rifle' with him, and he was wrestling for dominance of the weapon, seeing said Hunter at the last second.

"Laser up!" Dutch bellowed over the noise of Hunters screaming out for their lost comrades, which Dutch didn't much care for, so he smiled as the Spartan Laser eviscerated a remaining Hunter and left it with a nice round hole through its middle section. Dutch had to laugh at that, it was the one that was going to fry Buck.

Über-armour did not protect well against a great big fucking laser of skull-fuckery, came his main thought.

"Nice shot." Buck commented with his reclaimed rifle, placing a round or two into the Jackal that had fought for possession. It wailed out in a screech of annoyance and Dutch silenced it with a rough boot kick to its head. Breaking its cranium and neck from sheer force.

"I was aiming for his head." Dutch commented, looking at the now downed Hunter. The remaining one was being stabbed a lot by a seemingly peeved Samurai, the Hunter was swinging its arms around in a great deal of anger and frustration but couldn't shake the speedy marine. It was more like the Hunter was being annoyed by a tick, the ODST's sword not doing much but enrage the alien, but Buck was certain it was making the silent assailant feel a hell of a lot better.

Dizzy wasn't big on Samurai's venting and helped end the Hunter with a few concentrated blasts of a shotgun tungsten. Samurai's response to that was for him to remove his helmet and glare at Dizzy for a few seconds. This obviously did not please him.

"That ice cream was horrible!"

All heads turned to the source of the bizarre outcry to see a rather blacken-blue-armoured Caboose getting up rather shakily from the ground. "Green ice cream is meant to taste minty, not burn-y!" As the silly Spartan was on his feet fully, they saw a prone figure on the ground, which would appeared to have been Romeo with just a few minor plasma burns, he was unconscious, but that was most likely due to Caboose landing on him as opposed to being burnt into a coma.

All the ODST's collectedly sighed in relief and went to aid him.

"Er, sport?" Buck asked Caboose, "You're not a right minded fellow, but you do O.K by me, for your information, that was plasma, not ice cream."

"Wait, the Covenant aren't firing delicious balls of flavoured ice cream at us?"

"What? No!"

"But I thought they had invaded to give us all the ice cream we wanted."

"Erm, no. They invaded because they want to kill us."

"Well I can't be the only one that thought that right, I mean it seemed pretty much obvious from all the different colours of ice cream-"

"-Plasma-"

"-Plasma, then. But I mean come on! There was blue, that must of been blueberry, I'm not a fan of blueberry, think I might be allergic to it. And there was the mint ones, but every kept telling me to stay down all the time so I couldn't eat any of it. And the big purple guys with hooves were firing a purple-blue ice cream, not sure what that flavour was, and there was also the big furry brown guys that fired strawberry ice cream, and then they switched and started using the blueberry firing guns, that was selfish of them, they fired nasty blueberry ice cream into people, and-"

"O.K, O.K, I get it, it was ice cream."

"See! That's what I've been trying to tell you!"

Church slapped Buck on the back which a laugh. "Just agree with him dude, it makes things so much easier and then your brain won't destroy itself trying to figure out what he means."

"Yeah, kinda not gettin' my head around it too easy." Buck noted.

Sarge and the rest of the Spartans came over, the only one covered in any blood was the one known as Tex. She flicked some purple blood at Grif who needlessly flinched at the liquid.

"And where were you lot?" Dare questioned.

"Well I was kicking Covenant ass," Tex stated, then jabbing a thumb in her fellow Spartans directions, "And these pussies were cowering about and having their asses pussy-whipped by Grunts."

"Hey, I got a few, to be fair." Church tried to reason.

"No, you tried to hit a few, but you missed, because your aim is shit."

"Well... to be fair... I tried."

"She was fucking scary as usual," Grif remarked. "That poor Brute, I don't think it registered being ripped in half; it was whimpering and begging her to die by the time she did that.."

Dare looked at the black armoured female a little differently after hearing that one.

* * *

"No, that would be inefficient, if you think about it; you'd waste less ammo and time sending in a professionally trained marine as opposed to several newbies that'll go ape-shit and start firing off rounds left, right, and centre." Cortana explained and smiled at her bunkmate, her bunkmate was talking about how best to send them all on a nice mission seeing as they had passed the first few CQB tests with a slight amount of ease. However Cortana figured she'd tell her buddy why that'd not be the case.

"Well what about the one guy? Sure he's trained but he wouldn't take out an entire barracks of insurgents." Countered the small male.

"Not if he or she went running in guns blazing, no." Cortana laughed, "But if he or she were to go in silently I think they'd handle a bunch of insurgents with ease, especially if they were a Spartan, or an ODST."

"Okay then Mrs. Smartass, maybe say that they've got a-"

"To attention marines!"

Cortana had it drilled into her by now that she should listen to that. And followed suit, jumping down from the top of the bunk she was on, to standing as all the other marines did, and stood in a neat line beside their beds. Faces with blank expressions. Any form of smirk, or silly expression and you'd be doing laps around the obstacle course or be made to do push-ups anywhere from twenty to one-hundred depending on how much your face had pissed off the drill sergeant. Not to mention it was rather humiliating in front of all the other marines.

She recalled an incident where she'd been made to do laps in the training pool with gear on simply for forgetting to keep her side of a shared footlocker in neat and tidy fashion. She didn't want to do anything like that again.

"Well now marines. Time has come. It's been the chatter of many greenhorns about it."

A few worried glances appeared on faces in the room. Cortana's was one of them. She'd been there to train the Spartan II's when this came up, many of them, though very well trained, always received injuries from this exercise.

"The live fire obstacle course."

A few groans rang out. The drill sergeant immediately walked up to a few marines that had collectively groaned in a group, her boots thumping on the cold floor as she went. "I'm sorry." She shouted, coming to an abrupt half in front of a single marine who looked very pale all of a sudden. "I was under the impression you were all training to become top marines of the UNSC! A simple exercise has you panicking like old women? Well then, you don't think you can do it, then leave, aint nobody stopping you!"

Nobody moved, everything was deathly silent.

"That's better! Report to the main field at once!"

* * *

"This is it?" Kat mused, looking around at the crumbling walls, faulty lighting, and the cracks that were just about everywhere in the floor. She wasn't impressed. "This is the outpost we've been hearing about?"

"What were you expecting? A five-star hotel?" Rain asked with an eyebrow raised.

"No, but I was expecting a good working, in-order base."

"There's hot water an' workin' facilities. That should make you right happy by itself." Trinity commented after a scan of the outpost. "This aint a well maintained place because it was one o' the hardest hit when the Covenant landed, few marines left t' do repairs an' such."

"It's better than a plasma grenade in the ass, I suppose." Kat sighed.

"You suppose?" James grinned, pulling something from his belt, "Well, I do have a spare plasma grenade if you're wanting it firmly placed between your ass-cheeks."

James wasn't wearing his helmet, and he received a smack across the face for the comment.

"We'd better get settled, wait for the others." Kat spoke, "Set a decent perimeter, there's no marines on the guns outside and I doubt there's many actually patrolling. The Covenant could come back at any point."

As everyone wandered off to do the job, Trinity offered her voice. "Ah'm curious t' know whether or not ya enjoy settin' yourself up. That was a clear joke waitin' t' happen."

"Shut up." Kat muttered, smacking the side of her helmet.

* * *

She couldn't see that far in front of herself, her vision was being obscured by a guy that was poking his head up and down like a Meerkat every few seconds. They were in a small ditch on the training field with about six other grunts, Cortana had quickly seen the small battlefield go from an organised plan to complete shit in _twenty seconds flat. _They'd stormed onto the field with their rifles, each solider choosing whichever one worked best for them. She chose the DMR personally; a nice semi-auto rifle with a reliable fire rate. Not as high in velocity as the BR55 battle rifle, the DMR's successor. nor was it as high in ammo capacity, but she preferred it anyway. Most other marines had gone for that battle rifle, or the MAC5 assault rifle. Some even had the old MA37's, the assault rifles used on Reach. They'd long since stopped production on them, but the ammo type was the same, so they got used.

She hefted her DMR slightly and trudged over from her muddy position to another, laying on her front and moving forward up the bank to get a good view of the scene outside their ditch.

She saw several marines sprawled out in the dirt before her; not dead, just knocked out. Their opponents were the revered ODST's that had agreed to come and train the greenhorns for a few days. They were using their special silenced pistols with hammerhead sand bags. It wouldn't kill you; but it'd hurt. After several sandbags pelted you, you were declared dead by the officers overlooking the exercise, even if you got away from the sandbags. After they'd hit you, you had about a second to retreat before the ODST's switched their ammo type to a tranquilliser dart and put you down.

The thing about them having live ammunition was simply so they could get a feel for how the weapon worked, and hit displayed targets, cleaning it if it jammed, all while under pressure; all that jazz, she knew it. But know she was living it, and it wasn't as easy as she'd thought.

From here she could spy a nice little manikin with a Brute helmet on. One thing about once being an A.I meant when she came over into this body, she had heightened senses. Of course, it came in handy. And she could of sworn she heard a few squelches in the mud over to her left, eye sharply settling to the location of the noise. But there was nothing, these ODST's certainly precede their reputation. She was hesitant to shoot any of them, but they knew the risk of being at the head of a live fire exercise. She would obviously go for neutralising points and not the kill shots. That is, if she saw an ODST.

Focusing back on the manikin she lined up the scope with its head, taking in a deep breath. Her finger was steady on the rifle trigger and she gently squeezed as the cross-hair was still aimed between the eyes, (or lack of therefore), of the hardened plastic. A loud bang rang out across the battlefield as the bullet pinged through the helmet and punched a neat hole through the head. But this was supposed to be a brute, and they had thick skulls, so she fired a second time, impacting in almost the same spot, again exiting cleanly through the manikins head.

It was they a sandbag smacked into her arm, she yelped and scrambled away from it back into the ditch, and spied a nice welt where it had hit. Not a deadly shot, but a wounding one. She'd be penalised for it.

"We have to go now." Cortana said, "I may have just alerted them to our position."

Their objective in this was simply to stay alive and take out as many targets as possible. Over the training area hung a huge digital clock. They'd started at 13:45, and needed to last until 15:45. She could spy the clock from here, it read, 15:12.

So she had about half an hour to dodge sandbags. "_Fun._" Came Cortana's instant thought.

All the marines were getting up abruptly and running out the ditch, save her and one other, they had both figured that the however many ODST's that were out there had caught on to their position, if they hadn't already known. This lot ran out one way, so she went the other, as did the other marine, and not surprisingly enough, the others that had filed out behind her were getting pelted and tranquillised. They really shouldn't have ran towards the front of the field.

Her marine companion was sprinting with her, a devilish smile on his face, and she wasn't certain as to why that was, she also noticed he had a slight limp in his run, but he flinched and continued on faster as sandbags zipped past him.

They both spied a manikin up ahead and fired at it as they ran, most of their shots impacted upon its body, a few in the head, just then, another bag succeeded in pelting her lower back, shit, that'd be a bleeder, that area was around where were spleen and kidneys would be. Well, she might as well count herself as out, but hell if she was going to let herself get tranqued. She dived into cover behind a destroyed warthog.

They really liked making these tests seem real.

"How long do we got?" He asked, panting.

"I think about 20 minutes?" She replied, taking in a breath or two, but she wasn't winded like him, it actually felt like she'd gone for a slow jog. She smiled at the though of ever wanting to run again after Sycilla. ]

"Ah, shit. Well, nice knowing you then. Say, I don't actually know you. Who are you?" He asked all tine once breath, eyeing around the area cautiously.

"Cortana, and you?"

"Carl. Carl Daniel Ogren."

"Huh, interesting name."

"Yeah?"

"Uh-huh, three in one."

"Yeah I guess. How long do you think we'll last?" He wondered, scratching some dirt from his BR55.

"I give it about two minutes before we're pelted with sandbags."

"Shit,shit,shit,shit,shit,shit,shit,shit!" Came screaming down away from them a bit.

"What the.." Carl mused, poking his head out. Cortana followed suit, and eyed a girl running hell for leather towards them, seemingly at the speed reserved for olympic contestants.

"Ahhhhhhhhh, fuck!" She grunted out the word 'fuck' as she managed to plant herself behind cover next to Cortana. "Whoo! Yeah! Go fuck yourselves you fucking ODST pricks! Aint got shit on me!"

"You seem happy." Cortana mused. "Who're you?"

"The fuck? Were gettin' pelted and you're exchanging pleasantries?"

"Why not?"

"Name's Jack. What's yours purple bitch?" Jack commented with a point at her oddly coloured hair.

"Jack? Huh, okay, mine's Cortana." Cortana examined her with interest. This was not your everyday normal woman. She was covered head to toe in tattoos, some very intricate ones working up her arms, she had a malevolent look on her face but overall was very striking, with a shaven head of red hair only a centimetre thick. Hard, but undeniably beautiful.

"Oh, the A.I. Welp, been fun knowing you." Jack commented, not with a sense of enthusiasm as opposed to borderline disinterest. "They're about to swarm us, saw several of the ODS-Pricks as I was running. I give it about two minutes before were fucked over by sand in the eyes."

Their predicament came true after exactly one minute and seventeen seconds. Carl and Cortana were first to be pelted with the bags, and Jack was the last. Of course, Jack was hit with moderately more as she'd run up to an ODST and punched the living snot out of him with her bare fists, as well as using her rifle to smack him in the head a few times.

Needless to say she was tranqued much quicker than they'd anticipated.

* * *

**So... I know I keep adding characters, but we need Jack. We need her for Cortana's squad. Simply because; Jack. All of those that don't know: Jack is an all powerful bitch from the Mass Effect universe. **

**As far as I remember I had a few kiddies reviewing that wanted in on Cortana's squad. Please do remind me who you were, I remember Carl, but that's mainly because he pestered me about it forever. But he's in now, so hopefully that'll stop. xD**

**Next chapter to come soon-ish, I get a new laptop on the 5th with any luck, so regular updates may occur.**

**Until next time children, this is three-dog! Awhooo! And you're listening to Galaxy News Radio; bringing you the truth, no matter how bad it hurts. Next up; the weather! **

**Seriously though, signing off for now. Please review! :D**


	24. A New Battle Awaits?

**~Hides and throws a new chapter at the followers~**

* * *

"Fuck you! Fuck off! Leave me alone!" Jack was shouting at the top of her lungs as she was dragged along by two ODST's to a containment cell. She was still drugged to a degree. She would already be free and causing havoc if that were not the case.

Bangs and screams were coming from the huge metal door by the time it had been shut, with the ODST's out and walking away as quickly as they could. Cortana and Carl watched the scene with a mixed expression of shock and awe.

"Hey, is she on my squad?" Cortana asked Carl. "She's rather... unstable."

Another bang, and a definable dent in the thick iron door, followed by excessive strings of insults.

"That's an understatement, but I don't know." Carl laughed nervously. "I'm bruised and tired after that ordeal though, can we eat?"

"Yeah, let Jack in there cool off." Cortana glanced back at the room containing said woman. The two set off as the racket behind them died down. And Carl took up conversation. Glancing to Cortana while they passed people in the hallways.

"So, Cortana, right?" He nodded after she did. "Right, so, where you from?"

"Earth." Se didn't know the entirety of his question since he didn't narrow it down, but that seemed to be good enough.

"Ah, same here." He smiled, motioning to her head. "I just figured with that crazy coloured hair of yours that you were from an outer planet."

Her purple hair. Those bloody scientists, it was still funny to her.

"No, I'm an A.I. Well, _was._" Cortana explained, "The hair was someones idea of a joke. But I like it."

"Yeah, I heard that crazy girl saying something like that, wasn't sure if she was just off her nut or not." Carl was now looking her up head to toe, as if to re-evaluate her. "Yeah, you do look like Dr. Halsey alright."

"My mother?"

"Yeah; everyone knows the almighty duo: Master Chief and his A.I: Cortana. They were saying it all the time after the Covenant broke and we won the war. All over the news and such. I was just thinking you were a girl named after the A.I. But it didn't add up, you do look about 20."

"This body is 19 in age. Almost 20, in June, I believe."

"I see..." Carl laughed. "Interesting."

Cortana smiled at that as they both walked into the mess hall. They took their seats after getting their food, and ate while their pasts were swapped over eating their meals. Carl went quite a bit in depth at some points about women he'd been with, which made Cortana both laugh and feel uneasy about his libido.

It wasn't long before the next exercise was blared out to do. All the new marines collectively groaned.

* * *

"Okay, we're all here, at last." John said as they gathered around. Six, Kat, Rain, James, Jun, Yuffie, and recently; Cloud, Miranda, and Johnson.

The ODST's were still doing their job with Linda, and apparently, _other_ Spartans. That was interesting to John considering that apart from himself, Kat, Jun, and Six, Linda, Fred, and Kelly, all Spartans were dead or literally MIA. They could be new ones like these IV's here?

He didn't know. But he was happy they were safe so far. This invasion was taking a deep foothold again. And they would stop it before it became a second war. He saw everyone was seemingly waiting for him to speak; even The Arbiter and his ten Elites; his suicide squad. John placed a map of the area they were in, on a small table in the room they were in, they gathered around as best they could.

"What I will do is have The Arbiter and his squad cover ground elsewhere, and we will all concentrate ourselves, here:" He pointed at a red splotch that had been marked down. "This is a gathering of several Covenant anti-air wraiths and spectre's. Now they've already burned a big path through a few cities alone. If they mass in size any more, they'll be unstoppable without orbital intervention. We don't have the pelicans available to waltz on in there and blast away with rockets, either. They're all off rescuing civilians and doing other duties." He paused, and dragged his finger to an area south of the red mark. "We'll get to here, and plan out an attack once we get a survey of the area. This maps points of interest are about a day or so old, so we won't know what we're walking into, or if we'll even be walking into anything. So it's a gamble. But a necessary one."

They nodded in understanding.

This was going to be tough.

* * *

**A/N: Small update. I am aware. I mainly want to know your take on my proposal, as it were. That bit with Chief and planning attacks, that's actually the first time I've put in 'Strategy of attack.' I realised.**

**In all honestly, I have lost a lot of interest in the story. My plot isn't what I thought it would be, and I don't think with my current state of mind that I can continue. I want _your_ opinions. Any and all, seriously. I need to know where this story stands. I have a solid idea to re-do this with, and it'd be nice to know I won't be destroying what people have created for themselves; like their toons. I would keep them into the re-done tale and such. However, I might not have them making regular****appearances. How we all learn from our mistakes is by making a mistake, and mine was gathering a lot of characters! Haha. I can do it, just. But still, need to know how things pan out for y'all. I would keep certain elements played throughout, like Cortana and her purple hair, certain battles, or Johnson getting drunk, whathaveyou. I just don't think I could handle all this. As well as all that, a new re-hash would mean regular updates; and that's a plus. Most who follow me and not the story will know I output chapters for other stories quite regularly. But anyway, please do tell.**

**Plus, this story is my very first, when I couldn't write for shit, up until now when I can, so it's really bits and pieces. It's quite bad.**

**Anyway, please, _please do_ tell me your thoughts.**


	25. I'm Making A Note Here, Huge Success

**So, a nice little thing we've had going on. This is just a note.**

**I've made a lot of progress since 2006, or whenever I started writing, as well as finding Fan-Fiction's site. And this story is a huge shit-pile of overdone ideas, old and new grammar, and nonsense. I have decided to actually re-vamp it. And right now, I'm currently working on the new first chapter for the new story. So far, as for plot, and insight, it'll follow Halo 3's end slightly. Chief will get back home obviously, but it won't go into Halo 4 save for the tech and shit.**

**It's been a long run, and I thankyou all for your reviews, numerous as they are, I never expected that many on my one little story. No I don't care that it's over 50K. But I am happy that it's brought you all laughs and something to read. So this is the end of the beginning, as it were.**

**Consider this story the draft. The original canon for the new story. **

**The new story's title? It'll be something deep and meaningful or some shit. But I can tell you Cortana will still be getting a body. Not to say it won't be without its perks.**

**I'll leave that to sit in your head in the meantime.**

**Again, a huge thankyou to everyone that's followed, reviewed, and supported the story and myself. I'll see you at the 'premier' of the new story. It's been fun!**

**~Jessi.**


	26. Final Notice

**Again a huge thanks to all your support.**

**The new story is up and starting:**

**"Metamorphosis" is on my profile and awaits reading!**

**Happy trials, remember to review and give your opinions on the revised story!**


End file.
